General Assembly resolution 69/247 established the Ad Hoc Committee on Sovereign Debt Restructuring, with instructions to "elaborate ... a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes." These invited remarks discuss the historical context for this effort, which spans...

The wave of sovereign defaults in the early 1980s and the string of debt crises in subsequent decades have fostered proposals involving policy interventions in sovereign debt restructurings. The global financial crisis and the recent global pandemic have further reignited this discussion among...

This paper studies the relationship between sovereign debt default and annual GDP growth taking into account the depth of a debt restructuring and distinguishing between commercial and official sovereign debt restructurings. Analyzing 73 default episodes in 117 countries over the period...

A central policy concern since the onset of the Greek debt crisis in 2010 has been whether sovereign debt restructurings trigger credit default swaps (CDS). For the first time since AIG threatened to default on its CDS in 2008, the Greek debt crisis returned CDS to the global spotlight. The...

The Great Recession has brought greater sovereign debt defaults, which in turn have brought a surfeit of academic explorations and policy discussions of sovereign debt restructuring. The purpose of this article is to offer yet one more idea for the hopper of what to do with the seemingly...

The contingent liabilities of a sovereign, such as guarantees of the debts of third parties, can normally be kept off the balance sheet of the sovereign guarantor. That is their charm. As the debt to GDP ratios of many developed countries approach red-zone levels, contingent liabilities are...

The history of sovereign debt lending and borrowing goes back to ancient times. Sovereigns borrow money for reasons similar to individuals. The vital difference between the two however, is one of recovery. Unlike individuals, a sovereign's assets may not be seized and liquidated for recovery of...

The most widely proposed LDC debt plans are flawed by their failure to recognize the fundamental differences between corporate and sovereign debt. Consequently, many plans intended to help highly-indebted countries mainly aid their foreign creditors. This paper emphasizes the crucial distinction...