BOOK: Edward JONES CORREDERA, Odious Debt. Bankruptcy, International Law, and the Making of Latin America [The History and Theory of International Law, eds. Nehal BHUTA, Francesca IURLARO, Anthony PAGDEN & Benjamin STRAUMANN] (Oxford: OUP, 2024), 272 p. ISBN 9780192888280, GBP 100

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

What are fallen tyrants owed? What makes debt illegitimate? And when is bankruptcy moral? Drawing on new archival sources, this book shows how Latin American nations have wrestled with the morality of indebtedness and insolvency since their foundation, and outlines how their history can shed new light on contemporary global dilemmas. With a focus on the early modern Spanish Empire and modern Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, and based on archival research carried out across seven countries, Odious Debt studies 400 years of history and unearths overlooked congressional debates and understudied thinkers. The book shows how discussions on the morality of debt and default played a structuring role in the construction and codification of national constitutions, identities, and international legal norms in Latin America. This new history of the moral economy of the Hispanic World from the 1520s to the 1920s illuminates contemporary issues in international law and international relations. Latin American jurists developed a global critique of economics and international law that continues to generate pressing questions about debt, bankruptcy, reparations, and the pursuit of a moral global economy.

Table of contents:

Introduction
1:Origins of Odious Debt
2:Sancho Panza's Promised Land: Spain's Default on its American Debts
3:A History of Forgiveness: Moral Bankruptcy in Mexico
4:Fratricide and Redemption: Gran Colombia's Debt to Simón Bolívar
5:Armed Debtor: The Utility of Bankruptcy in Argentina
6:Sacred Debt and Just War: Moral Economy beyond International Law

Conclusion

Read more here.