Sovereign Financing and International Law
The regulation of sovereign financing is a highly topical and significant issue, in the
light of continuing global financial turmoil. This book assesses the role of international
law in sovereign financing, addressing this issue from both legal and economic
standpoints. It takes as a starting point the recent report 'Principles on Responsible
Sovereign Lending and Borrowing' by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD). This report was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in its December
2011 Resolution on Debt, which emphasized the need for creditors and debtors to share
responsibility for preventing unsustainable debt situations and encouraged all
stakeholders to pursue the ongoing discussions within the framework of the UNCTAD
Initiative. Investigating the legal and economic basis for the principles which were
articulated in the report, the book develops a detailed and nuanced analysis of the
controversial and complex issues they raise, including those concerning finance and credit
rating agencies, contingent liabilities, debt management, corruption, fiduciary relations
and duties, Collective Action Clauses, and the role of the EU and UN. Ultimately, it
argues that the principles elaborated in the report correspond with general principles of
international law, which provide a strong, pre-existing foundation upon which to build
responsible principles for sovereign financing.
PART 1 - SETTING THE GLOBAL SCENE ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Why the Need for Promoting
Principles on Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing? ; 3. Sovereign Debt
Restructurings as Exercises of Public Authority: Towards a Decentralized Sovereign
Insolvency Law ; PART 2 - LEGAL STATUS OF THE PRINCIPLES ; 4. Legal Status of UNCTAD's
Principles on Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing ; 5. Out of Thin Air? Tracing
the Origins of the UNCTAD Principles in State Practice ;
PART 3 - COMPARATIVE STUDIES: GENERAL PRINCIPLES ; 6. Legal Stipulations of Sovereign
Lending and Borrowing in Domestic Jurisdictions ; 7. The Legal Contours of Sovereign Debt
Restructuring under the UNCTAD Draft Principles ;
PART 4 - DEBT MANAGEMENT ; 8. Improving Debt Management on the Basis of UNCTAD's
Principles ; 9. UNCTAD's Principles and the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Links and joint strategies ; 10. Fiduciary Relations: Legal Framework and Implications for
Responsible Sovereign Debt Management ; 11. Current EU Mechanisms to Tackle Sovereign
Insolvency: An Analysis Against the Benchmark of the UNCTAD Principles ;
PART 5 - CHINA AS A CASE STUDY ; 12. China's Governmental Preferential Loans and the
Performance of its Lending Responsibility - Take China Export-Import Bank as an Example ;
13. Debt Crisis Prevention for China as the Biggest Sovereign Creditor and the Principles
;
PART 6 - TWO KEY ISSUES ; 14. Restructuring a Sovereign's Contingent Liabilities ;
PART 7 - OUTLOOK AND IMPLEMENTATION ; 15. Producing Change in Sovereign Lending
Practices ; 16. Implementation of the Principles on Responsible Sovereign Financing ;
PART 8 - CONCLUSIONS ; 17. Concluding Remarks in the Light of International Law
432 pages, Hardcover