"Completed:
Title: Odious Debt, Adverse Creditors, and the Democratic Ideal (
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sovereign-debt-and-human-rights-9780198810445?cc=it&lang=en&#(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre))
Authors: Margot E Salomon and Robert Howse
In the context of transitions from authoritarian rule to democracy, the notion of odious debt has often been raised as a claim to adjust or sever sovereign debt obligations, based on the purported odiousness of the previous regime and the notion that the debt it incurred did not benefit, or was used to repress, the people. Ultimately, the normative force of the odious debt doctrine comes from the primacy of the democratic ideal: when the debt was contracted not only was this done by a non-representative government but the debt served the purpose of that government in denying the political freedom of the people. But these are not the only cases where sovereign debt is in profound tension with democratic self-determination. As we can see most visibly in the case of Greece, sovereign debt may provoke a state of emergency or exception, where a democratic state comes under the tutelage of foreign creditors, whether governmental institutions or private actors, who are able to threaten the state with financial collapse if it does not accept these limits on democratic self-determination. In other words, debt may be contracted by a non-oppressive state for non-oppressive purposes, but nevertheless, for a period of crisis and often long beyond, the dependency on external actors such as creditors, including international financial institutions (IFIs), may fundamentally frustrate or attenuate democracy. As this chapter explores, the sanctity of democratic governance and the related principles that animate the doctrine of odious debt are important for our understanding of what is wrong with sovereign debt today. Applied in the context of the recent Greek debt and human rights crisis, we see how odious debt is applicable to debt incurred not only by dictators but by democracies and how, in the latter circumstances, international creditors are implicated in “hostile” acts against the demos. We conclude with suggestions on the remediation of odious debt today.
M.E. Salomon and R. Howse, ‘Odious Debt, Adverse Creditors, and the Democratic Ideal’ in I. Bantekas and C. Luminas (eds), Sovereign Debt and Human Rights (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2018).
Work in progress:
Title (provisional): The Utility of Crises and the Regressive Development of International Human Rights Law
This work in progress is an inquiry into international human rights law and political economy. Through the lens of the debt and austerity crisis in Europe, this paper studies how welfare policy becomes an indispensable aspect of sustaining the processes of capitalist exploitation, dispossession, and accumulation and how international human rights law in the area of socio-economic rights might aid in that enterprise. Taking inspiration from Silvia Federici’s 1992 work on the ‘utility of debt crises’, this article explores responses to the recent debt crisis in Europe and the significance of that ‘crisis’ and ‘emergency’ for the regressive development of international law. In contemplating the ‘utility’ of those (regressive) legal developments this work uncovers how they serve dominant economic narrative theories and interests.
Speaking events:
During the course of the grant year the researcher was able to take advantage of several important opportunities to present her findings to academic and policy audiences. Events include the Expert Roundtable at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights organised by the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and Foreign Debt. The Roundtable was dedicated to developing Guiding Principles on human rights-based economic policy. The researcher also spoke at a conference at the Universite libre de Bruxelles on Austerity on Trial, as well as organised a workshop bringing together researchers in law, media studies, and political science to address the issue of Neoliberalism and Law in Europe.
https://www.eui.eu/events/detail?eventid=144406(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)"
