As public debt soars, a new wave of sovereign defaults looms. International law on sovereign defaults is underdeveloped because States have largely refrained from adjudicating disputes arising out of public debt. The looming new wave of sovereign defaults is likely to shift dispute resolution...

In October 2008, Iceland's banking system collapsed. Within a week, the three major banks comprising ninety percent of the Icelandic banking system had failed. A long-running dispute on who ought to pay for the deposits in failed Icelandic banks has poisoned relations between Iceland, the United...

The financial crisis that started in 2008 is spreading from the private to the public sector. The migration from private to public balance sheets, and vice versa, is a familiar story in the history of international finance. The most prominent channel linking sovereign and private sector balance...

The UK's Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010 aims to ensure that UK courts neither give nor enforce a judgment allowing recovery against Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (‘HIPC') on covered debts exceeding the amount calculated as sustainable under the HIPC Initiative.Some have objected...

This chapter argues that current international financial law is largely toothless and dangerously underdeveloped. The sea change in international finance since 1990 seems to have bypassed the public international law of finance and international financial lawyers. Despite dazzling growth in...

Investment tribunals often profess fidelity to the rules on treaty interpretation contained in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). At first sight, they mention Article 31 and 32 VCLT with reassuring regularity. But first impressions may lead astray. My hypothesis is that many...

Investment codes are standalone, unified codes with all rules relevant for inward foreign investment. This paper surveys their use and evolution. Investment codes have a two-fold purpose: to encourage foreign investment, and to maintain control over it. They typically reflect a compromise...

Fragmentation of international law can occur at two levels: at the level of substantive rules (applicable law), and, at the level of interpretive method. Whereas the substantive aspect of fragmentation has spawned an enormous literature over the last decade, interpretive fragmentation has...

Subnational insolvency is a reoccurring event in development, as demonstrated by historical and modern episodes of subnational defaults in both developed and developing countries. Insolvency procedures become more important as countries decentralize expenditure, taxation, and borrowing, and...

This paper assesses the legacy of Mario Draghi as President of the European Central Bank from 2011-2019, with particular reference to the Greek's sovereign debt crisis. Most macroeconomic indicators improved over the course of Draghi's tenure at the ECB, including inflation, budget deficits,...