Chapter 9 Versus Chapter 11 after Orange County – Lessons for the SDRM

Abstract

This paper was written in 2003 for the International Bar Association conferences in Rome, Italy. As Co-Chair of a panel on Sovereign Debt Restructuring, I wrote this to highlight a general shortfall in analysis of the International Monetary Fund’s Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism. The SDRM was drafted based on the U.S.’s Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”). This paper points out that Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, dealing with political subdivisions of States was a better model for any transnational insolvency regime.