The literature on sovereign debt treats law as of marginal significance, largely because the doctrine of sovereign immunity leaves creditors few potent legal remedies against sovereign borrowers. Although sovereign debts can indeed by hard to enforce, the goal of this Essay is to demonstrate...

In this article we examine the relations between risk, the choice of foreign or local contract terms (parameters) and maturity in the sovereign debt market. Our primary finding is that the maturities of bonds that carry a meaningful degree of risk (rating BBB+ and below, which we label Lower...

We review the state of the sovereign debt literature and point out that the canonical model of sovereign debt cannot be easily reconciled with several facts about sovereign debt pricing and servicing. We identify and classify twenty puzzles. Some are well known and documented, others are less so...

Sovereign borrowers needing debt relief in the 21st century must face three sets of creditors — commercial lenders (usually bondholders), traditional Paris Club government creditors and non-Paris Club bilateral creditors like China. Each of these groups will secretly hope to extract...

The logic, features and future shape of the new financial architecture of the Eurozone were discussed under Chatham House Rules on the occasion of a high-level conference hosted in Florence on 23 April 2015, by the European University Institute in cooperation with Imperial College London. The...

The logic, features and future shape of the new financial architecture of the Eurozone were discussed under Chatham House Rules on the occasion of a high-level conference hosted in Florence on 23 April 2015, by the European University Institute in cooperation with Imperial College London. The...

The doctrine of state succession requires that governments honor the international commitments of their predecessors. Even if a dictator borrows to oppress his own citizens, future generations are required to service the debts and commitments contracted by the dictator. This paper starts by...