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Les maux

The initiatives undertaken by States which have been reviewed so far, lack the power and incisiveness of concerted, negotiated initiatives. 115 It may be that other countries will follow suit and also adopt measures. Certainly, if the United States which remains a prime forum for defaulted sovereign debts litigation, were to adopt measures, such as the ones which were introduced before Congress, this would have a tremendous impact – even though experience has shown that when it comes to enforcing judgments obtained in the US, sovereign debt creditors were almost always forced to look for assets outside the United States. Hence, measures adopted by individual States will not have the same force as a truly coordinated intervention. Until now, the international community has not moved towards adopting stringent measures aimed at taming the so-called ’vulture funds’. The only initiatives which have been undertaken at the multilateral level are non binding resolutions – such as the Resolution adopted by the Paris Club in May 2007, in which the Club expressed its concern about the action of litigating creditors, noting that they ’free ride’ on the debt cancellation granted by other creditors and thus divert resources from poverty reduction expenditures in the debtor country. 116 At most, these declarations will raise awareness of the issue among the countries concerned, which may therefore refrain from selling debts they owe to distressed-debts ventures. 117 On the regional level, one should also note that legal debt clinics
115. An additional question which is raised by the national interventions, relates to their scope of application. It may indeed be wondered what consequences, if any, the various national legislations will have outside their home jurisdictions. In so far as the legislation prohibits or otherwise impose limitations to courts seized of a claim made by a sovereign creditor, it is submitted that such limitations may only have effect for the jurisdiction concerned. Even though some countries are prepared to give effect to foreign mandatory rules, it seems quite unlikely that a court outside England will reduce the claim ﬁled by a sovereign creditor as imposed by Debt Relief Act. In fact, it is quite likely that this Act does not seek to have any effect outside the UK. The fact that the Debt Relief Act is said to operate even if the debt is subject to the law of another country (section 3(9) of the Act), does not change this result. Likewise, it is unlikely that when seized of a request to authorize an attachment, a court located outside Belgium will give any effect to the special status of assets earmarked for cooperation under the Belgian Act. To rule otherwise, would be to give effect to what is in essence a very political decision by Belgium. See on these various issues, submission by Jonathan Nash, QC and Peter Ratcliffe, HM Treasury consultation, ’Ensuring effective debt relief for poor countries’, February 2010, at § 15-26). 116. In furtherance of this resolution, Paris Club creditors have conﬁrmed that they are committed to avoid selling their claims on HIPCs to other creditors who do not intend to provide debt relief under the HIPC initiative (more details available at http://www.clubdeparis.org/sections/themes-strategiques/2009-8217-action-du-club/). See further the declaration by the Member State of the European Union, which have pledge to take action to “deter aggressive litigation by distressed-debts funds” and agreed not to sell claims on HIPCs to creditors who are not willing to provide debt relief – Council of Europe, conclusions of the 2870th External Relations Council Meeting, 26 and 27 May 2008 – ’Speeding Up Progress Towards the Millenium Development Goals’, at § 41 - http:// www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/gena/10688.pdf/ 117. As has been done by the Finance Ministers of the Commonwealth following their meeting in October 2008 – see the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting Communiqué 2008 at § 13, where it is stated that the Ministers “[r]ecognised the importance of Commonwealth creditors leading
http://www.clubdeparis.org/sections/themes-stra http://http:// http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/gena/10688.pdf/
Droit des affaires - Insolvabilité des États et dettes souveraines -1

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