DebtCon9

The Department of International Law of the University of Vienna and the CEU’s Department of Legal Studies will host the 9th Interdisciplinary Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference (DebtCon9), May 24-26, 2027, in Vienna, Austria. 

DebtCon brings together law and social science scholars, civil society representatives, and practitioners from the public and private sectors who work on sovereign debt, to help find creative solutions for urgent policy problems. 

The first Interdisciplinary Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference was launched at the Institute of International Economic Law in January 2016. Its mission is to engage scholars and practitioners across geographic, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries to help solve pressing sovereign debt problems. DebtCon brings cutting-edge research to bear on policy and market practice, and helps make research more impactful with exposure to real-world policy and market experience. 

DebtCon9 will convene amid rising sovereign debt distress, compounded by the rising food and fuel costs in the wake of the Iran war as well as shrinking foreign aid flows from many countries of the Global North. These pressures coincide with acute refinancing risks from elevated global interest rates and a wave if emerging market maturities through 2027. Additional challenges include geopolitical fragmentation, the intensifying climate crisis, fiscal rigidities from increasing defense and social spending, and political polarization – all demanding interdisciplinary solutions, as these dynamics echo historical crises yet require fresh policy innovations.