Discussing Argentina’s Debt Litigation and Sovereign Immunity at the Cato Institute

I had the pleasure of participating in a very interesting discussion yesterday of Argentina’s debt litigation at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. Richard Samp offered a useful overview of this litigation, and my own talk focused on the strange (and in my view inappropriate) way that the U.S. legal system allows sovereigns to waive immunity from courts, but continues to protect them against most judgments.  Other panelists, including an economist from Moody’s, offered a very interesting set of slides explaining why Argentina’s treatment of its creditors is substantially harsher than almost all other sovereign defaulters in recent decades.I also would recommend watching the video from about the 57th minute to see Arturo Porzecanski of American University criticize the overall policies of the Kirchner government.

I think Argentina is in a bad spot right now and it is possible they will end up losing their final appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court. Indeed, it is possible the Court will not even hear their petition (although hiring former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will no doubt help Argentina).  Still, I doubt the Court will rush to hear this case and if they do, any final resolution might have to wait quite a bit longer. This case has quite a ways to go.