NML v. Argentina: Measuring the strength of contract against sovereign immunity

By Jérôme Sgard 

This chapter reviews the principal stages of the resolution of Argentina’s default, as well as the immediate conclusions one may draw from this episode.
 It then compares the rules for debt restructuring that found their full expression on that occasion to the core principles that back up two somewhat similar experiences: one is the generic the bankruptcy rule as developed historically at the national level, the other is the practice adopted by the IMF during the debt crisis of the 1980s. 
These two comparisons highlight the scope of the evolutions observed in this field since 1990, but also the unbalanced (and thus unstable) nature of the current non-regime.