Cookies?
Library Header Image
LSE Research Online LSE Library Services

The EU debt crisis: testing and revisiting conventional legal doctrine

de Grauwe, Paul, Ji, Yuemei and Steinbach, Armin (2017) The EU debt crisis: testing and revisiting conventional legal doctrine. International Review of Law and Economics, 51. pp. 29-37. ISSN 0144-8188

[img]
Preview
PDF - Accepted Version
Download (1MB) | Preview

Identification Number: 10.1016/j.irle.2017.05.002

Abstract

Controversies surrounding the European sovereign debt crisis loom prominent in the public debate. From a legal perspective, the no-bailout rule and the ban on monetary financing constitute the main principles governing the legality review of financial assistance and liquidity measures. Interpretation of these rules are full of empirical claims. According to conventional legal doctrine, bond spreads only depend on the country’s debt position, largely ignoring other causal factors including liquidity. We test the hypotheses implicit in conventional legal reasoning. We find evidence that a significant part of the surge in the spreads of the peripheral Eurozone countries was disconnected from underlying fundamentals and particularly from a country’s debt position, and was associated rather strongly with market sentiments and liquidity concerns. We apply our empirical findings to the legal principles as interpreted by recent jurisprudence arguing that application of the no-bailout principle and the ban on monetary financing should be extended to capture non-debt related factors. Also, the empirical results suggest taking recourse to alternative legal grounds for reviewing the legality of anti-crisis instruments and allowing for a lender of last resort in the euro zone.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01448...
Additional Information: © 2017 Elsevier Inc.
Divisions: European Institute
Subjects: J Political Science > JK Political institutions (United States)
K Law > K Law (General)
Date Deposited: 06 Jun 2017 16:02
Last Modified: 14 Sep 2024 07:27
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/80131

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics