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)....

Sovereigns have a long history of defaulting on their debts. Despite the bitter lessons learned through this history, the international community has not yet developed an effective method for dealing with these events. As a result, each sovereign’s debt restructuring process is likely to be...