Eurozone sovereign debt restructuring : promising legal prospects?

The Eurozone debt crisis has stimulated lively debate on mechanisms for sovereign debt restructuring. The immediate threat of exit and the breakup of the currency union may have abated; but the problem of dealing with significant debt overhang remains. After considering two broad approaches - institutional versus contractual – we look at a hybrid solution that combines the best of both. In addition to debt contracts with Collective Action Clauses, this includes a key amendment to the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism, together with innovative state- contingent contracts and a Special Purpose Vehicle to market them

Sovereign debt restructuring : the Judge, the vultures and creditor rights

What role did the US courts play in the Argentine debt swap of 2005? What implications does this have for the future of creditor rights in sovereign bond markets? The judge in the Argentine case has, it appears, deftly exploited creditor heterogeneity – between holdouts seeking capital gains and institutional investors wanting a settlement – to promote a swap with a supermajority of creditors. Our analysis of Argentine debt litigation reveals a ‘judge-mediated’ sovereign debt restructuring, which resolves the key issues of Transition and Aggregation - two of the tasks envisaged for the IMF’s still-born Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism. For the future, we discuss how judge-mediated sovereign debt restructuring (together with creditor committees) could complement the alternative promoted by the US Treasury, namely collective action clauses in sovereign bond contractsSovereign debt crises ; debt restructuring ; holdout creditors ; collective action clauses

Depletion and social reproduction

Much work has been done on the unaccounted contribution of social reproductive work to national economies. What has been less studied is the consequence of this neglect for individuals, households and communities engaged in social reproduction. Where these consequences have been recognised, it has largely been in the context of economic crises. So, for example, Elson has pointed out in her analysis of gendered impact of crises, "If too much pressure is put upon the domestic sector to provide unpaid care work to make up for deficiencies elsewhere, the result may be a depletion of human capabilities, ...To maintain and enhance human capabilities, the domestic sector needs adequate inputs from all other sectors. It cannot be treated as a bottomless well, able to provide the care needed regardless of the resources it gets from the other sectors" (2000:28). In this paper we take this insight and develop it in the context of the everyday political economy. We argue that the inputs into social reproduction are less than the outputs generated by it. We term this difference depletion

Good faith in sovereign debt restructuring: the evolution of an open norm in ‘localised’ contexts?

Since the Argentine debt crisis in 2001 (and the settlement of 2005) the influence and credibility of the official sector especially the IMF is at a historical low. It is in this context that changes in sovereign bond contracts, for instance, the widespread adoption of collective action clauses raise questions about future debt restructurings. Market participants, especially creditors overwhelmingly believe that contract modification is important but only ‘at the margins’. If contractual change is marginal, what then are the mechanisms that will ensure fair and orderly debt workouts? In the absence of a global, multilateral, regulatory framework for sovereign debt restructuring, our examination of changes in the period leading up to the Argentine settlement and after, reveals that market participants may instead be relying on good faith to do the job with the court recognising similar expectations. Good faith, though entrenched as a legal norm in several domestic jurisdictions, such as Germany and the U.S., is a relative newcomer to sovereign debt workouts. This evolving norm is not institutionally embedded and unlike the domestically entrenched version, is not a legal rule with specific requirements that needs to be fulfilled. We conclude by showing that good faith is an open norm ‘localised’ inter alia in formal and informal contexts in which market participants interact with each other and therefore conceptually similar to Treu und Glauben as recognised in section 242 BGB.Sovereign debt, good faith, open norm, localised context

Sovereign Debt as a Commodity: A Contract Law Perspective

The ad hoc institutional configurations that facilitated the resolution of sovereign insolvency for over thirty years are fragmenting. Recent court decisions interpreting the pari passu clause in sovereign debt contracts reveal the dangers of pressuring common law courts to enforce contracts and mediate structural flaws in the market. The courts have dismantled sovereign protections in international law and common law checks and balances. They have gone beyond precedent to innovate remedies justified by interpreting a clause whose meaning and function were not clearly understood by the contracting parties themselves. They have also opened up a possible inter-creditor obligation that circumvents sovereign immunity legislation. This obligation imperils third party property protections and exposes the US clearing system to creditor remedies. The article argues that the current challenges require the courts to play an inadvertent, expansive regulatory role. To fulfil this role they must ensure that creditors enjoy their property (debt) without constraints and assume away the resulting externalities. In effect, enforcement sustains the legal fiction that debt is a commodity. Legal recognition of this fiction obviates negotiated debt workouts, which are premised on suspending this commodity form. The article dispels the idea that the possibility of enforcement in sovereign debt markets brings us closer to achieving the legal regime theorized as the neutral backdrop of competitive markets

Shared Contextual Risk Factors of Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Among Women

There is a lack of research on the shared risk factors between female victims of IPV at risk of Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV-positive females at risk of becoming a victim of IPV. The constructivist grounded theory and qualitative study aimed to explore shared documented and novel potential risk factors/themes among female victims burdened by IPV and HIV. The conceptual framework used was a social constructivist grounded theory. First, a literature review was conducted. Secondly, one-on-one online interviews and member checks were conducted with a purposeful sample of 18 subject matter experts after data were analyzed using ATLAS. ti. to, manage, code, and transcribe the data. Lastly, a second thorough literature review was conducted. Unique risk factors/themes for why female victims of IPV were at risk of HIV were: engaging with the wrong partner and accessibility to drugs. The unique risk factors/ themes for why HIV-positive females were at risk of becoming a victim of IPV were “cannot escape partner” and ignoring symptoms. The shared risk factors/themes were a lack of support, access to health care, drug/substance abuse, education, financial/mental and physical abuse, forced sex, HIV/STI status disclosure, isolation/withdrawal, negotiating condom use, sexual risky behaviors, socioeconomic status, and telehealth interventions. The shared novel potential risk factors/themes were accessibility to drugs, a lack of support, cannot escape partner, engaging with the wrong partner, and ignoring symptoms. Results may have a positive social change by developing or improving preventative measures for females experiencing the burden of IPV, HIV, and IPV and HIV

Sustainable Debt Restructuring in the time of Covid 19: Investment and Non-Elite Participation

This paper demonstrates that the medium-term consequences of the Covid 19 shock on developing countries depends on how sovereign debt obligations are restructured now. We develop a necessary and sufficient condition for sustainable debt restructuring which implies an upper bound on the interest rate which debt is restructured. We show that this upper bound on the interest rate is increasing in the level of financing (the sum of debt repayments rolled over, debt write-downs and new investment). We use our result to examine the sustainability of a debt standstill. Using data from the UN Economic Commission for Africa, we carry out a simple calibration exercise to quantify the impact of investment on interest rate charged. We examine the role of contingent contracts and show they may have a limited role in ensuring debt sustainability. We examine the role of creditor heterogeneity and debtor moral hazard and demonstrate that participation in the debt restructuring process by community groups, civil society organisations is key to restoring sustainability

Good faith in soverign debt restructuring: the evolution of an open norm in 'localised' contexts?

Since the Argentine debt crisis in 2001 (and the settlement of 2005) the influence and credibility of the official sector especially the IMF is at a historical low. It is in this context that changes in sovereign bond contracts, for instance, the widespread adoption of collective action clauses raise questions about future debt restructurings. Market participants, especially creditors overwhelmingly believe that contract modification is important but only ‘at the margins’. If contractual change is marginal, what then are the mechanisms that will ensure fair and orderly debt workouts? In the absence of a global, multilateral, regulatory framework for sovereign debt restructuring, our examination of changes in the period leading up to the Argentine settlement and after, reveals that market participants may instead be relying on good faith to do the job with the court recognising similar expectations. Good faith, though entrenched as a legal norm in several domestic jurisdictions, such as Germany and the U.S., is a relative newcomer to sovereign debt workouts. This evolving norm is not institutionally embedded and unlike the domestically entrenched version, is not a legal rule with specific requirements that needs to be fulfilled. We conclude by showing that good faith is an open norm ‘localised’ inter alia in formal and informal contexts in which market participants interact with each other and therefore conceptually similar to Treu und Glauben as recognised in section 242 BGB

Active Gaming as a Form of Exercise to Induce Hypoalgesia

Objective: An acute bout of moderate-to-vigorous exercise temporarily reduces pain sensitivity in healthy adults. Recently, active gaming has been rising in popularity as a means of light-to-moderate exercise and may be particularly suitable for deconditioned individuals. Whether the physical activity elicited in active games can produce a hypoalgesic effect remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether active videogames can reduce pressure and heat pain sensitivity in healthy adults. We also evaluated the relationship between the physical activity elicited by the games and the magnitude of the hypoalgesic response. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one healthy adults played four different active games on separate days, including Microsoft® Kinect Xbox® One's Fighter Within and Sports Rival's Tennis, and Nintendo® Wii™ Sports' Boxing and Tennis. Heat pain thresholds on the forearm and pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) on the trapezius and forearm were assessed immediately before and after a 15-minute active gaming or control session. Minutes spent in sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during active gaming were measured with an accelerometer. Results: The analyses revealed that PPTs at the forearm and trapezius significantly increased from pretest to posttest following Kinect Fighter Within. PPTs at the trapezius also significantly increased from pretest to posttest following Wii Boxing. The magnitude of the hypoalgesic response was significantly correlated with MVPA and sedentary time during gameplay. Conclusion: These results suggest that an active gaming session played at a moderate intensity is capable of temporarily reducing pain sensitivity

Estradiol-induced desensitization of 5-HT1A receptor signaling in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus is independent of estrogen receptor-beta

Estradiol regulates serotonin 1A(5-HT1A) receptor signaling. Since desensitization of 5-HT1A receptors may be an underlying mechanism by which selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) mediate their therapeutic effects and combining estradiol with SSRIs enhances the efficacy of the SSRIs, it is important to determine which estrogen receptors are capable of desensitizating 5-HT1A receptor function. We previously demonstrated that selective activation of the estrogen receptor, GPR30, desensitizes 5-HT1A receptor signaling in rat hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus(PVN). However, since estrogen receptor beta(ERβ), is highly expressed in the PVN, we investigated the role of ERβ in estradiol-induced desensitization of 5-HT1A receptor signaling. We first showed that a selective ERβ agonist, diarylpropionitrile(DPN) has a 100-fold lower binding affinity than estradiol for GPR30. Administration of DPN did not desensitize 5-HT1A receptor signaling in rat PVN as demonstrated by agonist-stimulated hormone release. Second, we used a recombinant adenovirus containing ERβ siRNAs to decrease ERβ expression in the PVN. Reductions in ERβ did not alter the estradiol-induced desensitization of 5-HT1A receptor signaling in oxytocin cells. In contrast, in animals with reduced ERβ, estradiol administration, instead of producing desensitization, augmented the ACTH response to a 5-HT1A agonist. Combined with the results from the DPN treatment experiments, desensitization of 5-HT1A receptor signaling does not appear to be mediated by ERβ in oxytocin cells, but that ERβ, together with GPR30, may play a complex role in central regulation of 5-HT1A-mediated ACTH release. Determining the mechanisms by which estrogens induce desensitization may aid in the development of better treatments for mood disorders