"If a despotic power incurs a debt not for the needs or in the interest of the State, but to strengthen its despotic regime, to repress the population that fights against it, etc., this debt is odious for the population of all the State."
- Alexander Sack, 1927

The concept of odious debt stipulates that international debts do not have to be paid back by a successor government, if they were made by an autocratic leader and were not used for the benefit of the population. Individuals do not have to repay money that others fraudulently borrow in their name, in the same way that a corporation is not liable for contracts that the chief executive officer or another agent enters without the authority to bind the firm. If there were an analogous norm regarding fraudulent sovereign debt, banks would not issue loans to repressive or looting governments in the first place.

Reports on Odious/Illegitimate Debt

Skeletons in the cupboard: Illegitimate debt claims of the G7 (Eurodad 2007)

The Case of Malawi (Afrodad)

The Case of Dem Rep of Congo (Afrodad)

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