The book sheds light on the perhaps most important legal conundrum in
the context of sovereign debt restructuring: the holdout creditor
problem. Absent an international bankruptcy regime for sovereigns,
holdout creditors may delay or even thwart the efficient resolution of
sovereign debt crises by leveraging contractual provisions and, in an
increasing number of cases, by seeking to enforce a debt claim against
the sovereign in courts or international tribunals.
Following an introduction to sovereign debt and its restructuring, the
book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the holdout creditor
problem in the context of the two largest sovereign debt restructuring
operations in history: the Argentine restructurings of 2005 and 2010 and
the 2012 Greek private sector involvement. By reviewing numerous
lawsuits and arbitral proceedings initiated against Argentina and Greece
across a dozen different jurisdictions, it distils the organizing
principles for ongoing and future cases of sovereign debt restructuring
and litigation. It highlights the different approaches judges and
arbitrators have adopted when dealing with holdout creditors, ranging
from the denial of their contractual right to repayment on human rights
grounds to leveraging the international financial infrastructure to
coerce governments into meeting holdouts' demands. To this end, it zooms
in on the role the governing law plays in sovereign debt restructurings,
revisits the contemporary view on sovereign immunity from suit and
enforcement in the international debt context, and examines how creditor
rights are balanced with the sovereign's interest in achieving debt
sustainability. Finally, it advances a new genealogy of holdouts,
distinguishing between official and private sector holdouts and
discussing how the proliferation of new types of uncooperative creditors
may affect the sovereign debt architecture going forward.
While the book is aimed at practitioners and scholars dealing with
sovereign debt and its restructuring, it should also provide the general
reader with the understanding of the key legal issues facing countries
in debt distress. Moreover, by weaving economic, financial, and
political considerations into its analysis of holdout creditor
litigation and arbitration, the book also speaks to policymakers without
a legal background engaged in the field of international finance and
economics.
