In international law, odious debt is a legal theory that holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are, thus, considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion.
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Famous quotes containing the words odious and/or debt:
“Thus every Part was full of Vice,
Yet the whole Mass a Paradise...
The worst of all the Multitude
Did something for the Common Good.
... ...Luxury
Employ’d a Million of the Poor,
And odious Pride a Million more...
... ...the very Poor
Liv’d better than the Rich before...”
—Bernard De Mandeville (1670–1733)
“Live within your means, never be in debt, and by husbanding your money you can always lay it out well. But when you get in debt you become a slave. Therefore I say to you never involve yourself in debt, and become no man’s surety. If your friend is in distress, aid him if you have the means to spare. If he fails to be able to return it, it is only so much lost.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)