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Selected Works

2014

International Law

Sovereign debt

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Law

Who Is The "Sovereign" In Sovereign Debt?: Reinterpreting A Rule-Of-Law Framework From The Early Twentieth Century, Odette Lienau Dec 2014

Who Is The "Sovereign" In Sovereign Debt?: Reinterpreting A Rule-Of-Law Framework From The Early Twentieth Century, Odette Lienau

Odette Lienau

Combining legal interpretation with political science analysis, this Article highlights the competing "statist" and "popular" conceptions of sovereignty at stake in sovereign debt issues. It argues that these two dominant approaches do not exhaust the offerings of intellectual history and considers an alternative approach that emerged in the early twentieth century and may be of relevance again today. The Article contends that U.S. Chief Justice Taft's foundational 1923 "Tinoco" decision, which grounds the current approach to sovereign governmental recognition, has been misinterpreted to support a purely statist or absolutist conception of sovereignty. It argues that a proper interpretation presents an …

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Extending The European Debt Discussion To Broader International Governance, Odette Lienau Dec 2014

Extending The European Debt Discussion To Broader International Governance, Odette Lienau

Odette Lienau

Although Europe is no stranger to sovereign debt troubles, the focus of international debt governance for several decades has been on the developing world. Discussions surrounding the efficacy and appropriateness of crisis mechanisms have been shaped by this political reality. But the current focus on Europe itself may generate changes in how public and private actors view international debt governance and the legitimacy of crisis mechanisms. In these remarks, I will focus on two ways in which Europe might serve as a test case for broader governance practices. First, I will discuss the ramifications of the European Union’s potential adoption …

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The Deep Deformation Of Europe: Economic Conflict In The European Union, Elli Louka Jun 2014

The Deep Deformation Of Europe: Economic Conflict In The European Union, Elli Louka

Elli Louka

This book explains how the euro crisis has generated a conflict between creditor states and debtor states in the European Union. Europe has failed to transform into a Union. Instead it is deeply deformed by a conflict that takes place through the instrument of economic power. Those who had visualized Europe as a United States of Europe now see the European Union as just another example of the coercion in international politics.

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Sovereign Immunity And Sovereign Debt, W. Mark C. Weidemaier Dec 2013

Sovereign Immunity And Sovereign Debt, W. Mark C. Weidemaier

W. Mark C. Weidemaier

The law of foreign sovereign immunity changed dramatically over the course of the 20th century. The United States abandoned the doctrine of absolute immunity and opened its courts to lawsuits by private claimants against foreign governments. It also pursued a range of other policies designed to shift such disputes into litigation or arbitration (and thus relieve political actors of pressure to intervene on behalf of disappointed creditors). This article uses a unique data set of sovereign bonds to explore how international financial contracts responded to these legal and policy initiatives. The article makes three novel empirical and analytical contributions. The …

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Injunctions In Sovereign Debt Litigation, W. Mark C. Weidemaier, Anna Gelpern Dec 2013

Injunctions In Sovereign Debt Litigation, W. Mark C. Weidemaier, Anna Gelpern

W. Mark C. Weidemaier

Injunctions against foreign sovereigns have come under criticism on comity and enforcement grounds. We argue that these objections are overstated. Comity considerations are important but not dispositive. Enforcement objections assign too much significance to the court’s inability to impose meaningful contempt sanctions, overlooking the fact that, when a foreign sovereign is involved, both money judgments and injunctions are enforced through what amounts to a court-imposed embargo. This embargo discourages third parties from dealing with the sovereign and, if sufficiently costly, can induce the sovereign to comply. Nevertheless, we are skeptical about injunctions in sovereign debt litigation. They are prone to …

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