Document Type
Chapter of Book
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
The academic literature on sovereign debt largely assumes that law has little role to play. Indeed, the primary question addressed by the literature is why sovereigns repay at all given the irrelevance of legal enforcement. But if law, and specifically contract law, does not matter, how to explain the fact that sovereign loans involve detailed contracts, expensive lawyers, and frequent litigation? This Essay makes the case that contract design matters even in a world where sovereign borrowers are hard (but not impossible) to sue. We identify a number of gaps in the research that warrant further investigation.
Citation
W. Mark C. Weidemaier & Mitu Gulati, Sovereign Debt and the “Contracts Matter” Hypothesis, in Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics (forthcoming)
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Public debts, Contracts, External debts—Law and legislation
Included in
Banking and Finance Law Commons, Contracts Commons, International Law Commons, Securities Law Commons
Available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3380