Sovereign Debt Crises

Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky is a United Nations Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights. He previously worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and as a consultant for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). A doctor of law with wide experience in international relations and litigation, he is the author of numerous books and articles on sovereign financing, economic complicity, and human rights. Kunibert Raffer was an associate professor (retired September 2016) at the Department of Economics, University of Vienna; Honorary Professor of the Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Argentina; member of the Sovereign Bankruptcy Group of the International Law Association; 1989 Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (Sussex) invited by Sir Hans (HW) Singer with whom he co-authored two books; and 1990-93 Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Commerce, University of Birmingham. In 1998 he participated in the UNDP's research project 'International Development Cooperation and Global Public Goods.' He is a former lecturer at UNITAR (on debt and MDGs), and he proposed a model of sovereign insolvency (Raffer Proposal).

• 1. Introduction: we need to learn from our experience Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky and Kunibert Raffer; 2. Managing public debt crisis in Argentina: between sovereignty and subordination Alfredo Calcagno; 3. Why developing countries should not incur foreign debt: the Brazilian experience Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira and Thiago de Moraes Moreira; 4. Ecuador's 2008–9 debt restructuring: a special case? Adam Feibelman; 5. Greece: an EU-inflicted catastrophe Kunibert Raffer; 6. Grenada: a small island developing state needs new ways out of its debt Juergen Kaiser; 7. Iceland: a human rights sensitive approach to deal with financial crises Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky; 8. Indonesia's 1997–8 economic crisis: a teachable case wasted Manuel F. Montes; 9. The Irish sovereign debt crisis post–2009: a lesson on why countries should never enter into unsustainable currency unions Philip Pilkington; 10. Short-term capital controls and Malaysia's fast recovery after the East-Asian crisis Marion Pircher; 11. Sovereign debt: lessons from the Mexican experience Oscar Ugarteche Galarza and Rodrigo Delgado Méndez; 12. Portugal's austerity bailout: lessons of a dangerous experiment José Castro Caldas; 13. Don't waste a serious crisis: lessons from South Africa's debt crisis Daniel D. Bradlow; 14. Lessons from South Korea: a developmental mindset makes a difference when governing the financial economy Elizabeth Thurbon; 15. The Spanish crisis: the trouble of managing debt overhang in an imperfect monetary union José Antonio Alonso; 16. Conclusions: what has been learned? Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky and Kunibert Raffer.

'Countries respond to sovereign debt crises in remarkably different ways and with remarkably different results. Some are handled well and produce only limited social, financial and political disruption. Others are mangled, with terrible consequences both for the citizens of the debtor country and the country's creditors. The essays compiled by Messrs, Bohoslavsky and Raffer in this timely book survey these precedents and astutely distil the relevant lessons.' Lee C. Buchheit, Cleary, Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP