A Contemporary Concept Of Monetary Sovereignty University Press Scholarship Online

Monetary sovereignty is a crucial legal concept dictating that states have sovereignty over their own monetary, financial, and fiscal affairs. However, it does not feature as part of any key instruments of international law, including the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund. Rather, it has remained a somewhat separate notion, developed under contemporary international law from an assertion of the former Permanent Court of International Justice in 1929. As a consequence of globalization and increasing financial integration and a worldwide trend towards the creation of economic and monetary unions, the principle of monetary sovereignty has undergone significant change. This book examines this evolution in detail, and provides a conceptual framework to demonstrate what this means for the legal and economic challenges faced by the international community. The book examines the historic origins and evolution of the concept of monetary sovereignty, putting it into the context of broader concepts of sovereignty. It argues that monetary sovereignty remains relevant as a dynamic legal concept with both positive and normative components. It investigates the continuing hybridization of international monetary law resulting from changes to its formal and material sources. It then examines the complex phenomenon of exchange rate misalignment under international monetary and trade law, and the increasing regionalization of monetary sovereignty, notably in light of the European sovereign debt crisis. Finally, it assesses the role the concept of monetary sovereignty can play in the reorganization of international finance following the recent global financial crisis. This book analyses whether the concept of monetary sovereignty is evolving under the impact of economic globalization and increasing financial integration, and assesses what this implies. Chapter 1 reviews the origins of the concept of monetary sovereignty and concludes that, as a dynamic concept with both positive and normative components, monetary sovereignty cannot become eroded under the impact of legal and economic constraints. Chapter 2 examines the ongoing hybridization of international monetary law arising from changes in the sources of this body of law, from the unsuitability of the categories of “hard” and “soft” law for characterizing all normative evolutions in this field, and from the emergence of transnational monetary law. Chapter 3 scrutinizes the phenomenon of exchange rate misalignment under monetary and trade law. Intrinsically related, it assesses which aspects of the IMF’s legal framework should be reformed to tackle contemporary challenges to the stability of the international monetary system, such as global current account imbalances. Chapter 4 analyses the increasing regionalization of monetary sovereignty through monetary union movements. In this context, relevant aspects of the European sovereign debt crisis are examined in detail. It is argued that, as long as transferring sovereign powers to a monetary union is what provides a state’s population with maximum monetary and financial stability, the underlying transfers are not a surrender of monetary sovereignty, but its effective exercise under the form of cooperative sovereignty. Finally, chapter 5 looks into the ongoing reorganization of the international financial architecture and assesses whether the experience of the Global Financial Crisis has prompted states to rethink the way sovereign powers in monetary and financial matters are exercised International Law Dictates That States Have Sovereignty Over Their Own Monetary And Fiscal Affairs. In Practice, However Globalisation And The Powers Of Organisations Like The Imf And Eu Are Thought To Have Significantly Eroded This Idea. This Book Offers A Legal Analysis Of The Development Of Monetary Sovereignty And Its Meaning In Today's World. General Introduction -- A Revision Of The Concept Of Monetary Sovereignty -- The Increasing Hybridization Of International Monetary Law -- Exchange Rate Misalignment And International Law -- The Increasing Regionalization Of Monetary Sovereignty -- The Reorganization Of The International Financial Architecture In The Wake Of The Global Financial Crisis -- Concluding Remarks. Claus D. Zimmermann. This Study Is A Revised Version Of The Doctoral Dissertation That I Defended At The University Of Oxford In December 2011.--page Xi. Includes Bibliography (pages 235-252) And Index.