Odious Debts

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Odious debts (English: despicable debts, also dictator debts) is an international legal term developed by Alexander Nahum Sack , Russian minister and professor of law in Paris after the Russian Revolution , in its entirety, however, has not yet been included in current international law is.

According to the theory of odious debts , national debts are despicable and illegitimate and therefore do not need to be repaid if:

  1. these came about without the consent of the population due to the lack of a government legitimized by democratic elections,
  2. the money was used to oppress the country and the services paid with it harmed the people, and
  3. the lenders had knowledge of both or could have had with reasonable research.

There are no clearly defined criteria as to when debts become odious debts . The debt repayment obligations are in conflict with the interests of the successor government. Since the funds raised through loans flowed into elites, served to oppress the population, or were used in any other way that was not in the interests of the population, according to the doctrine of odious debts, the obligation of the subsequent government should not be expected. At the same time, this is intended to deter potential lenders from supporting such regimes.

Precedents

  • In 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War , the US government refused to take on Cuba's debts to Spain because these debts were odious and therefore unenforceable because they were imposed on the Cuban people in order to suppress the Cuban liberation movement.
  • In 1923, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newly formed government of Costa Rica that the debts left by Federico Tinoco Granados were personal debts of the dictator and not the people of Costa Rica, as they were taken in exile and to prevent the establishment of a democratic one Government had been installed.
  • In 2003, after the Third Gulf War , the United States followed the principle of largely discharging occupied Iraq.
  • In 2008 an audit was carried out in Ecuador which concluded that part of the debt was "odious" and consequently would not be repaid.

literature

  • Paulus, Christoph G., Do 'Odious Debts' represent a legal figure? , Journal for Commercial and Banking Law 2005, pp. 53–60.
  • Paulus, Christoph G., 'Can Debts Be Odious and, thus, Be Void?', International Corporate Rescue 2006, p. 299.
  • Stephania Bonilla, Odious Debt: Law-and-Economics Perspectives (Ökonomische Analyze des Rechts), Gabler Verlag 2011, 383492993X, doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-8349-6763-3 .
  • Schneider, Friedrich Benjamin, 'Odious Debts. Status quo and regulatory model with special consideration of international human rights', Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2015.

proof

  1. ↑ Review: Iraq's debt relief - procedure and potential implications for international debt relief ( Memento from June 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Odious Debts Online , December 2007.