Some considerations september 7, 2007 this discussion paper has been prepared by the economic policy and debt department of the world bank prmed with inputs from the legal department leg. Greek debt revisited greece s borrowing over the past two decades can be understood as a classic case of predatory lending. Our analysis is related to the legal doctrine of odious debt, which holds that. So, what is alexandre sacks concept of odious debt. The doctrine, based on a series of precedents in jurisprudence, has come in for a lot of debate. At the same time, mobutu and his associates extracted wealth from the country. In this brilliant hybrid of detective work and policy analysis, patricia adams has unraveled a rats nest of third world lending to describe the debt crisis in its. The odious debt concept seeks to provide a moral and legal foundation for severing, in whole or in part, the continuity of legal obligations where the debt in question was contracted by a prior odious regime and was used in ways that were not beneficial or were harmful to the interests of. The concept of odious debt regroups a particular set of equitable. The odious debt controversy is, at base, a struggle to find a workable legal doctrine. He further examines the status of the odious debt doctrine under international law. Venezuela and greece will be two important test cases for the implementation of the traditional and restated.
The dilemma of odious debts duke law scholarship repository. Curtailing odious debt, in contrast, is a selfenforcing sanction. Alternative solutions to the odious debt problem graduate institute. Alexander nahum sack moscow 1890 new york 1955, a russian lawyer who taught in saint petersburg then in paris, is considered to be one of the founders of the doctrine of odious debt. Shutting down the borrowing capacity of illegitimate regimes can be viewed as a form of economic sanction and has two. In chapter one, jeff king assesses previous definitions of the term odious debt and set out procedures for applying the doctrine to a number of foreseeable situations, in a manner that is internally consistent and which accords with public policy. External borrowing and capital flight in zaire leonce ndikumana and james k.
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