(February 1, 2007) Following the United States’ invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq,1 the U.S. government argued that the successor government in Iraq was not responsible for Iraq’s Saddam-era debt under the purported doctrine of odiousregime debt. This purported doctrine apparently excused—by operation of law—all successor regimes from repaying debts that were incurred by oppressive predecessor regimes.

(January 31, 2007) Sovereign debts are persistent – as financial obligations of a sovereign state, these debts survive the regime which contracted for them and bind future governments until the creditors are satisfied.

(January 27, 2007) On the shores of Hunan Province’s Dongting Lake — the second largest freshwater lake in China — lies the village of Qingshanyuan. As all too commonly found in rapidly developing China, industrial plants surround the lake discharging wastewater and emitting toxic gases into the air, regardless of the environmental consequences.

(January 21, 2007) There has been a revival in interest in the doctrine of odious debt in legal, policy and economic quarters. Building on the author’s earlier work and recently published article, this study provides a restatement of the odious debt doctrine and renewed examination of its legal foundations.

(January 17, 2007) This paper examines the way that the traditional notion of odious debt as a method of repudiating sovereign debt may undergo a conceptual revolution, as it changes focus from the illegitimacy of governments obtaining loans, to the illegitimacy of the systems through which such loans are made and enforced generally.

(January 17, 2007) Defenders of the odious debt doctrine, which bars creditors from collecting sovereign debts that financed the personal consumption of former dictators, argue that this rule would benefit populations following dictatorships and discourage would-be dictators from staging coups in the first place. We show that optimism about the doctrine is based on unrealistic assumptions about the motives and practices of dictators. With more realistic assumptions, the odious debt doctrine.

(January 17, 2007) Earlier this week, 140 international charities, churches and NGOs sent a written petition to British Prime Minister Tony Blair demanding that he reopen a corruption probe into a controversial arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

(January 17, 2007) The Kerala High Court in south-western India has directed the country’s top investigation agency to look into a corruption scandal concerning a years’ old government electricity contract awarded to a Canadian construction firm.