Legal Implications of the Eurozone Crisis Debt Restructuring, Sovereign Default and Euro Zone Exit

In this urgently needed book, a member of the Eurozone and Sovereign Debt Working Group at Slaughter and May – perhaps the premier law firm involved in cases related to sovereign debt –focuses on the legal implications of default or exit by a euro zone state. Examining separately the consequences for private sector and official sector creditors, the author provides penetrating analysis and commentary on such elements of the crisis as the following:

• legal limitations on developing or expanding arrangements designed to avert sovereign default;

• compatibility with EU law of the outright monetary transactions (OMT) programme;

• implications for euro zone member states of decisions arising out of the 2001 Argentine default;

• legal implications of the redenomination of euro obligations into a new national currency;

• impact of capital and exchange controls including their compatibility with IMF, GATT,GATS, and EU law;

• potential for member state liability to bondholders under bilateral investment treaties;

• enforcement of judgments against a sovereign defendant;

• paths to euro zone exit;

• redenomination in the courts of other EU States;

• unlawful euro zone exit;