'Countries respond to sovereign debt crises in remarkably different ways and with remarkably different results. Some are handled well and produce only limited social, financial and political disruption. Others are mangled, with terrible consequences both for the citizens of the debtor country and the country's creditors. The essays compiled by Messrs, Bohoslavsky and Raffer in this timely book survey these precedents and astutely distil the relevant lessons.' Lee C. Buchheit, Cleary, Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP 'Sovereign debt crises have always been with us, and they always will be, like it or not. The contributors to this book provide a detailed look back at some of the most important episodes. In addition, and more importantly, they offer a way forward. Their ideas for how to handle such crises are much needed; one can only hope that the international policy community will listen.' Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley 'The indispensable guide to the modern history of debt crises.' James K. Galbraith, author of Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe 'This volume confronts a vital question - why do sovereign debt crises persist, despite the vast intellectual and policy effort invested in fighting them? The book's core contribution is to cast a wide net geographically, with broad country coverage, temporally, by examining developments before and after the acknowledged crisis period, and analytically, by embracing legal, historical, philosophical, and economic perspectives on the debt problem. That the authors are able to distill all this knowledge into pragmatic prescriptions for incorporating human rights and human welfare into debt thinking is an achievement to celebrate.' Anna Gelpern, Georgetown University, Washington, DC