Yale Journal of International Law - Special Online Edition on Sovereign Debt

This special issue is a cooperation of the Yale Journal of International Law and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It emerged from UNCTAD's work on sovereign debt workouts, specifically from its Working Group on a Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism (2013 to 2015). The working group developed a Roadmap and Guide for Sovereign Debt Workouts, published in 2015. It proposes an incremental approach to sovereign debt workouts that relies on the continuous, progressive development of sovereign debt restructuring practice. This work has inspired the adoption of Basic Principles for Sovereign Debt Restructuring by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. The special issue assembles papers that elaborate, reflect on, and critically scrutinize the incremental approach to sovereign debt restructuring. As the political momentum that would be necessary to adopt an international treaty governing sovereign debt workouts is currently lacking, the incremental approach explores the possibility of further developing current practice in line with legal principles that have emerged from progressive developments in debt restructuring practice in reaction to the crises of the last decades