My research deals broadly with the construction, regulation and crises of markets, today and in the past. I generally approach these issues with a very empirical, micro, bottom-up perspective that starts with the agents and the officials, who are in charge of enforcing rules or resolving disputes. This comes with a major interest for the legal and dimension of market regulation, especially the procedures: how they are invented, adopted and how they evolve. Bankruptcy and arbitration are my main research objects although I have also spent quite some time on the history of commercial law as such, the restructuring of sovereign debts, contract standardisation or early forms of industrial policy in 18th century France.
The First Global Era (1870-1914) was not just about the Royal Navy securing the sea-lanes, but al... more The First Global Era (1870-1914) was not just about the Royal Navy securing the sea-lanes, but also about private institutions supporting large, unregulated markets for goods and capital. This article analyzes how a non-profit elite body, the London Corn Trade Association, minutely integrated the global value chains for grains by way of Standard Contracts. Sale, shipping, insurance and credit contracts worked as a package, with all disputes being arbitrated in London, under the distant oversight of English courts. Private ordering thus offered high legal security and de facto extra-territoriality: merchants could entirely ignore the foreign judicial orders, hence all the costs and uncertainty of conflicts of laws. This contradicts the standard view of a "Westphalian Age", when international public law was supposed to be sole principle of legal ordering, at the international level.
The Bureau du Commerce allocated rights and rents to private entrepreneurs via a mix of hierarchi... more The Bureau du Commerce allocated rights and rents to private entrepreneurs via a mix of hierarchical division of labor and peer-based collegial deliberation. This set-up reflected an attempt to maximize information and expertise, but also allowed for the recognition of private rights and social interests. The final decisions of the Bureau (for or against each demand), and the qualitative arguments brought forward during the procedure, are robust predictors of eventual decisions. We see this result as an indication that impersonal, rational and informed decision-making could be obtained even within a patrimonialist, rent-seeking State.
We discuss and analyse the experience of major Central Banks with Currency swaps since 9/11 and, ... more We discuss and analyse the experience of major Central Banks with Currency swaps since 9/11 and, in more details, during the 2008-2011 period. Critically, this new and highly succesfull policy tools marks the formation of an International Lender of Last Resort, under the form of an exclusive network of Central Banks dominated by the US Fed. This innovation reflects therefore the hierarchy of international currencies. It implies as well a new division of labour between Central Banks and the IMF.
I discuss how the private London Corn Trade Association regulated the global market for cereals, ... more I discuss how the private London Corn Trade Association regulated the global market for cereals, between 1885 and 1914. I underline in particular the governance of the LCTA (by market insiders); how its principals drafted standardised contracts that were then adopted by hundreds of merchants across the world; lastly, how the Association made grain standards and resolved disputes between market participants by way of arbitration. Remarkably, all this unfold entirely under English law and under the protection of high London courts. Hence the "local and global", or imperial, character of this highmy efficient model of market governance.
I analyze the succession of two sharply contrasted regimes for sovereign debt restructuring. The ... more I analyze the succession of two sharply contrasted regimes for sovereign debt restructuring. The first one, which reached maturity during the 1980s, was marked by the central role of the IMF, the suspension of all relationships to international law as to the initial debt contracts, and the direct pressures exercised by Western national government on debtor countries and creditor banks. Since 2000, national judges, especially New York judges, have become the final dispute resolvers in sovereign debt matter, within a discursive regime that is now entirely based on private contract law. The consequence is a major strengthening of the rights of minority investors, who have gained a unique capacity to hold out on collective agreements. Two broad themes thus structure the discussion. One is the complex relationship between the unraveling of the former debt regime and that of the post-war, Keynesian compact. The other is the place and role of the law in this story, which set the present rules at a clear distance from the earlier experience of private, bond-based international finance, before 1914.
Le jugement rendu en 2014 par la Cour d'Appel de New York dans le cas NML v Argentina restera dan... more Le jugement rendu en 2014 par la Cour d'Appel de New York dans le cas NML v Argentina restera dans les annales de la dette souveraine. D'abord cette décision a ouvert la voie à la résolution en mars 2016 du défaut de paiement argentin : un des plus longs de l'histoire (2001-2016), un des plus importants (93 milliards de dollars) et un des plus complexes. Ensuite cette décision confirme le rôle central qui revient désormais au juge national dans la résolution des défauts souverains et donc dans l'interprétation des contrats sous-jacents. Enfin, dans le cas présent, le juge newyorkais a considérablement renforcé la position des investisseurs minoritaires, qui refusent un accord de restructuration collectif: d'abord en confirmant une interprétation controversée de la clause Pari Passu, ensuite en donnant aux créanciers minoritaires des moyens nouveaux et puissants pour faire pression sur l'émetteur souverain, afin d'obtenir gain de cause. Ce chapitre revient sur les principaux moments de la résolution du défaut argentin et sur les conclusions immédiates qu'on peut tirer de cet épisode. Puis on rapporte les règles émergentes qui ont été formulées à cette occasion aux principes qui justifient la règle de faillite au plan domestique. On étend alors la comparaison, de manière plus détaillée, aux règles adoptées par le FMI dans les années 1980 pour restructurer les dettes des pays en développement.
The First Global Era (1870-1914) was not just about the Royal Navy securing the sea-lanes, but al... more The First Global Era (1870-1914) was not just about the Royal Navy securing the sea-lanes, but also about private institutions supporting large, unregulated markets for goods and capital. This article analyzes how a non-profit elite body, the London Corn Trade Association, minutely integrated the global value chains for grains by way of Standard Contracts. Sale, shipping, insurance and credit contracts worked as a package, with all disputes being arbitrated in London, under the distant oversight of English courts. Private ordering thus offered high legal security and de facto extra-territoriality: merchants could entirely ignore the foreign judicial orders, hence all the costs and uncertainty of conflicts of laws. This contradicts the standard view of a "Westphalian Age", when international public law was supposed to be sole principle of legal ordering, at the international level.
The Bureau du Commerce allocated rights and rents to private entrepreneurs via a mix of hierarchi... more The Bureau du Commerce allocated rights and rents to private entrepreneurs via a mix of hierarchical division of labor and peer-based collegial deliberation. This set-up reflected an attempt to maximize information and expertise, but also allowed for the recognition of private rights and social interests. The final decisions of the Bureau (for or against each demand), and the qualitative arguments brought forward during the procedure, are robust predictors of eventual decisions. We see this result as an indication that impersonal, rational and informed decision-making could be obtained even within a patrimonialist, rent-seeking State.
We discuss and analyse the experience of major Central Banks with Currency swaps since 9/11 and, ... more We discuss and analyse the experience of major Central Banks with Currency swaps since 9/11 and, in more details, during the 2008-2011 period. Critically, this new and highly succesfull policy tools marks the formation of an International Lender of Last Resort, under the form of an exclusive network of Central Banks dominated by the US Fed. This innovation reflects therefore the hierarchy of international currencies. It implies as well a new division of labour between Central Banks and the IMF.
I discuss how the private London Corn Trade Association regulated the global market for cereals, ... more I discuss how the private London Corn Trade Association regulated the global market for cereals, between 1885 and 1914. I underline in particular the governance of the LCTA (by market insiders); how its principals drafted standardised contracts that were then adopted by hundreds of merchants across the world; lastly, how the Association made grain standards and resolved disputes between market participants by way of arbitration. Remarkably, all this unfold entirely under English law and under the protection of high London courts. Hence the "local and global", or imperial, character of this highmy efficient model of market governance.
I analyze the succession of two sharply contrasted regimes for sovereign debt restructuring. The ... more I analyze the succession of two sharply contrasted regimes for sovereign debt restructuring. The first one, which reached maturity during the 1980s, was marked by the central role of the IMF, the suspension of all relationships to international law as to the initial debt contracts, and the direct pressures exercised by Western national government on debtor countries and creditor banks. Since 2000, national judges, especially New York judges, have become the final dispute resolvers in sovereign debt matter, within a discursive regime that is now entirely based on private contract law. The consequence is a major strengthening of the rights of minority investors, who have gained a unique capacity to hold out on collective agreements. Two broad themes thus structure the discussion. One is the complex relationship between the unraveling of the former debt regime and that of the post-war, Keynesian compact. The other is the place and role of the law in this story, which set the present rules at a clear distance from the earlier experience of private, bond-based international finance, before 1914.
Le jugement rendu en 2014 par la Cour d'Appel de New York dans le cas NML v Argentina restera dan... more Le jugement rendu en 2014 par la Cour d'Appel de New York dans le cas NML v Argentina restera dans les annales de la dette souveraine. D'abord cette décision a ouvert la voie à la résolution en mars 2016 du défaut de paiement argentin : un des plus longs de l'histoire (2001-2016), un des plus importants (93 milliards de dollars) et un des plus complexes. Ensuite cette décision confirme le rôle central qui revient désormais au juge national dans la résolution des défauts souverains et donc dans l'interprétation des contrats sous-jacents. Enfin, dans le cas présent, le juge newyorkais a considérablement renforcé la position des investisseurs minoritaires, qui refusent un accord de restructuration collectif: d'abord en confirmant une interprétation controversée de la clause Pari Passu, ensuite en donnant aux créanciers minoritaires des moyens nouveaux et puissants pour faire pression sur l'émetteur souverain, afin d'obtenir gain de cause. Ce chapitre revient sur les principaux moments de la résolution du défaut argentin et sur les conclusions immédiates qu'on peut tirer de cet épisode. Puis on rapporte les règles émergentes qui ont été formulées à cette occasion aux principes qui justifient la règle de faillite au plan domestique. On étend alors la comparaison, de manière plus détaillée, aux règles adoptées par le FMI dans les années 1980 pour restructurer les dettes des pays en développement.
This is a critique (in French) of Philippe Sands's book "East West Street" (Weidenfeld & Nicolson... more This is a critique (in French) of Philippe Sands's book "East West Street" (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016).
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Ce chapitre revient sur les principaux moments de la résolution du défaut argentin et sur les conclusions immédiates qu'on peut tirer de cet épisode. Puis on rapporte les règles émergentes qui ont été formulées à cette occasion aux principes qui justifient la règle de faillite au plan domestique. On étend alors la comparaison, de manière plus détaillée, aux règles adoptées par le FMI dans les années 1980 pour restructurer les dettes des pays en développement.
Ce chapitre revient sur les principaux moments de la résolution du défaut argentin et sur les conclusions immédiates qu'on peut tirer de cet épisode. Puis on rapporte les règles émergentes qui ont été formulées à cette occasion aux principes qui justifient la règle de faillite au plan domestique. On étend alors la comparaison, de manière plus détaillée, aux règles adoptées par le FMI dans les années 1980 pour restructurer les dettes des pays en développement.