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...

This chapter explores how the wide range of interpreters that populate international law, forming part of interpretive communities, affects interpretation in international law. To understand how interpretation in international law works in practice, we need to appreciate the role of interpretive...

During 1982–83 and 2003–04, two waves of decentralization in France devolved more powers to the three levels of subnational governments (SNGs): the municipalities, the departments, and the regions. This new institutional framework has enabled SNGs to enjoy a greater degree of autonomous...

The European Union (EU) has had competence over trade in goods since its inception in 1957. The EU has exercised this external competence through its Common Commercial Policy (CCP). As one of the most dynamic fields of EU external relations, the scope and the nature of the CCP has evolved...

Spanish Abstract: En los años recientes, las crisis derivadas de deudas públicas han recibido mucha atención desde el punto de vista de la política pública internacional, pero todavía está pendiente la maduración de una efectiva solución legal a los defaults soberanos dentro del derecho...

The present international financial architecture (IFA) has been weakening since the early 2010s. Several factors have hindered the reorganization of the current IFA, accelerated the bipolarization of international financial relations, and reshaped the balance of power between sovereign debtors...

This entry is concerned with the rise and fall of investment treaties and investor-state arbitration after the end of the cold war. It provides a brief history of international investment law after the end of the cold war. Initially this is a story of the growing desirability of a high degree of...