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SUMMARY:Sovereign Defaults - Michael Waibel\, British Academy Postdoctoral
  Fellow at the Faculty of Law and the Lauterpacht Centre for International
  Law
DTSTART:20090302T130000Z
DTEND:20090302T140000Z
UID:TALK17220@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Bert Vaux
DESCRIPTION:Bankruptcy has been a feature of sovereign lending since time 
 immemorial. In 1788 BC\, King Rim-Sin of Ur declared all loans null and vo
 id. The English King Edward III cancelled debts incurred to finance the Hu
 ndred Years’ war in the 14th century. France defaulted on its debt short
 ly after the French Revolution. When the Soviets came to power in 1917\, t
 hey repudiated Tsarist debt. European countries defaulted on their soverei
 gn debt in the interwar period\, and many Latin American countries did so 
 during the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s. Argentina\, the first 
 major default of the 21st\ncentury\, was only the final major chapter in t
 he long history of sovereign overindebtedness. Rapid accumulation of sover
 eign debt since the start of\nthe global economic crisis last year could u
 sher in a new wave of sovereign defaults over the next decade. Drawing on 
 historical examples\, my talk will give an overview of how law deals with 
 countries that default on their payment obligations. It will also set out 
 some policy options for resolving future sovereign debt crises more effect
 ively.
LOCATION:Beves Room\, King's College\, Cambridge
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