Courses

This course will provide an introduction to the legal, financial and political aspects of the multi-trillion dollar cross-border debt market. The lens we will use to understand this market will be the world of sovereign and quasi sovereign bonds. For the first seven or eight weeks, we will discuss foundational aspects of the market. For the remaining time, we will look at a contemporary ongoing disputes. When possible, we will bring in guests who are experts in the field from both government and private practice. Because the focus of the class is on transactions or deals, we will touch upon a wide range of legal areas including contracts, securities regulation, bankruptcy, international law and transnational litigation practice. Most likely, this upcoming term, we will spend time two topics that have been particularly important recently: (1) the Ukraine/Russia situation and its impact on the global debt markets; and (2) the dramatic rise in ESG related bond issuances. To the extent possible, we try to use ongoing real world events as a teaching/learning tool. As things stand, it seems likely that we will be looking to the debt crises in Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Zambia, Ukraine and Russia.