Treasury Management for Governments

Governments should provide a sound legal framework for sovereign debt issuance and management.  This framework should establish who is able to borrow, invest, and undertake financial transactions on behalf of the state.  It should be supported by grants of appropriate authority to those who issue, manage, and administer the sovereign debt.

Gelpern, Anna and Gulati, G. Muti (eds.)  "A Modern Legal History of Sovereign Debt" issue of Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 73, No. 4, F 2010:   (Duke University Law School, Durham, 2010.) http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol73/iss4/ 

Debt defaults and restructuring

Market practices and their impact on sovereign debt.  Are market practices or trading rules different when sovereign debt is involved?  What are the significant issues regarding the development of a secondary market for government debt?

Issues in marketing sovereign debt.  What bodies oversee the regulation of markets or exchanges?  How do sovereign debt instruments fit into this framework?

Market practices and public debt.

The debt law and the state.

To Read Further ... 

Investor protection.  What laws and policies are needed or used to protect investors when they invest in sovereign debt and in other market instruments?  Must the entire market be transparent before investor confidence accrues to sovereign debt?

Market impacts and commercial laws.  A legal framework also provides the underpinnings of an effective government securities market by setting out rules that govern the rights and responsibilities of purchasers and traders in government securities.

The work on this page reflects the incomparable support and advice of the late Calvin Ninomiya (1927 - 2014, University of Chicago Law School, 1952).  Calvin was chief counsel to Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt from 1975 to 1995 and was an advisor to Treasury's Office of Technical Assistance.

The issuance of debt.  What laws affect the means and markets through which the state issues its debt?

The uses of sovereign debt.  Debt is used by the state to address fiscal shortages or to manage a cash position.  What other uses may sovereign debt be put to in meeting policy goals?

The state debt law.  When the state establishes its authority to borrow through a state debt law, what are the issues such a law must address?

The legal basis of sovereign debt.  Under what authority does the state claim the legal right to issue debt that becomes an obligation of the public?  [FG 1A]

Praxis: Debt -  The Legal Basis of Sovereign Debt