(January 1, 2008) This Article looks at the generally agreed upon characteristics of the odious debt doctrine and considers the unintended consequences and externalities that would ensue if this doctrine were ever made regularly operative. The enlivened scholarly debate surrounding the odious debt doctrine assumes that debt is the sole finance vehicle for despotic governments. This is simply not the case.

(January 1, 2008) The previous regime [in Iraq] accumulated a heavy burden of foreign debts to states which financed the tyrant’s wars against his people first, and then against our neighbors. The foreign loans helped him build a huge military apparatus and manufacture weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons which he used against the Iraqi people in Halabja. The loans supported his system of oppression and paid for his palaces and prisons during the war against Iran when Iraq’s oil revenue was extremely low.

(December 28, 2007) The popular German grassroots Jubilee movement Erlassjahr has dismissed the World Bank paper on odious debts as biased and flawed.

(December 28, 2007) The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation currently under consideration by the U.S. Congress, has gained support both in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The debt-relief legislation seeks to dissolve the debts of 67 of the world’s poorest countries owed to the United States, other official creditors in the Paris Club, the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions.

(December 24, 2007) The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) wants listed companies to disclose environmental information, the official China Daily reported. The newspaper cited Ge Chazhong, an official with SEPA, as saying that the agency is drafting rules for compulsory disclosure, which could be finalized in the next six months. The new reporting system could include key emission indexes for sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide and company targets to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

(December 12, 2007) The Nigerian government has cancelled a $1.1 million contract with Siemens pending an investigation into bribery allegations.

(December 12, 2007) Angel Gurria, the head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), says governments need to do much more in the fight against international corruption. Speaking at a conference in Rome last month to mark the 10th anniversary of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention, created to outlaw international bribery, Mr. Gurria expressed concern that "some countries are still holding back on implementing the Convention" and "have almost no investigations," and "have brought no cases to court."

(December 12, 2007) Passed by U.S. Congress three decades ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has become a powerful tool in the last five years for prosecuting domestic and overseas companies suspected of bribing foreign officials to secure business.

(December 12, 2007) Concerns about the status of Fiji’s current governing power have prompted some analysts to warn lenders they should beware of dealing with the country’s self-declared leader and his administration, who rule without having been democratically elected by the citizens of Fiji.

(December 1, 2007) Few events in the life of a society are as heady as the ouster of a long-standing dictatorial or corrupt regime. In the euphoria that typically follows this kind of nation building, the new government will want to expunge all vestiges of the old regime – personnel, laws, decrees and offensive policies.