Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Fall 2003)

How can we deal justly with debt? We might begin by looking more closely at the United States, where municipalities with debt problems have access to a neutral court of arbitration, and where creditors are prevented from demanding that municipalities sacrifice basic services even when this is necessary to meet their financial obligations. Developing analogous international institutions, such as the establishment of an independent debt arbitration panel, would help countries to escape and avoid financial crises. More importantly, it would help to protect the political rights that citizens of developing nations have fought so hard to achieve.