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The Odious Debt Doctrine After Iraq, Jai Damle
The Odious Debt Doctrine After Iraq, Jai Damle
Law and Contemporary Problems
The odious debt doctrine has experienced renewed popularity in the past few years; it has been heralded by academics, political commentators, economists, and politicians as a mechanism to alleviate burdens imposed by illegitimate rulers. In its classic formulation, the doctrine provides that a regime's debt is odious, and thus unenforceable, if the state's people did not consent to the debt, the proceeds from the debt were not used for the benefit of the people, and the regime's creditors had knowledge of the first two conditions. In 2003, the newly instated Iraqi regime began negotiations to restructure that country's debt, much …
Sovereign Debt Restructuring, Odious Debt, And The Politics Of Debt Relief, Robert K. Rasmussen
Sovereign Debt Restructuring, Odious Debt, And The Politics Of Debt Relief, Robert K. Rasmussen
Law and Contemporary Problems
Odious debt is more of a literature than a doctrine. Going back to at least the 1920s, one can find arguments that countries should not have to pay back debts that are labeled "odious." The central intuition is that the citizens of a country should not have to pay for the debts incurred by a prior "odious" regime when those funds did not benefit these citizens. It is simply not right to ask people to pay for funds from which they did not benefit, especially when the lender knew of this fact when it made its loan. Here, Rasmussen comments …
Odious Debt Wears Two Faces: Systemic Illegitimacy, Problems, And Opportunities In Traditional Odious Debt Conceptions In Globalized Economic Regimes, Larry Catá Backer
Odious Debt Wears Two Faces: Systemic Illegitimacy, Problems, And Opportunities In Traditional Odious Debt Conceptions In Globalized Economic Regimes, Larry Catá Backer
Law and Contemporary Problems
Backer examines how the traditional notion of odious debt as a method of repudiating sovereign debt may undergo a conceptual revolution as it changes focus from the illegitimacy of governments obtaining loans to the illegitimacy of the systems through which such loans are made and enforced generally. He focus his analysis on the conceptual framework Fidel Castro sought to introduce into the debate about the legitimacy of sovereign debt and the extent to which this reframing might influence international institutional approaches.
Odious Debts Or Odious Regimes, Patrick Bolton, David Skeel
Odious Debts Or Odious Regimes, Patrick Bolton, David Skeel
Law and Contemporary Problems
Odious regimes have always been there. That there is no silver-bullet solution that will prevent odious regimes from arising, or stymie them once they do, is evident from the plethora of responses employed by the international community once a regime's odiousness becomes clear. Current odious debt doctrine dates back to a 1927 treatise by a wandering Russian academic named Alexander Sack. The Sack definition contemplates a debt-by-debt approach to questionable borrowing. If a loan is used to benefit the population--to build a highway or water-treatment plant, for instance--the obligation would be fully enforceable, no matter how pernicious the borrower regime. …
Agency By Analogy: A Comment On Odious Debt, Deborah A. Demott
Agency By Analogy: A Comment On Odious Debt, Deborah A. Demott
Law and Contemporary Problems
DeMott focuses on how one might think about the phenomenon of odious debt from the standpoint of common-law agency. Though this analogy has its flaws, some useful insights can be gathered by examining the similarities and differences between the two doctrines, especially when contemplating the theory of liability in the sovereign context. To illustrate the complexity of comparing odious debt to agency law, she develops a series of comparisons between the consequences of borrowing by a sovereign and that by a private corporation afflicted with inept or corrupt management.
Partially Odious Debts?, Omri Ben-Shahar, Mitu Gulati
Partially Odious Debts?, Omri Ben-Shahar, Mitu Gulati
Law and Contemporary Problems
Ben-Shahar borrows from a rich private-law tradition to explore the treatment of odious debt as a problem analogous to allocation of liability in private law. Drawing on the economic analysis of private law, it develops insights as to the structure of an optimal liability scheme. Under this approach, liability is imposed not on the basis of some intrinsic judgment as to the parties' relative blameworthiness, but rather in a forward-looking fashion, on parties who are best suited to take actions to prevent the loss. In addition, liability is imposed on a magnitude tailored to induce an optimal level of precautionary …