Poteri e interventi del Fondo monetario internazionale

The purpose of volume is to investigate the “legal dynamics” of the developments in IMF’s functions, highlighting the impact they have had on the purposes the organization actually pursues. A two-fold perspective guides the analysis. First of all, the volume highlights how national policy decisions in the economic realm are influenced (if not determined) by private actors. The interconnections between financial markets and institutions, as a result of the progressive liberalization of capitals flows, have proved capable to deploy destabilizing forces, in pursuance of profit goals in most cases in contradiction with public interests of economic growth and stability. How this markets dynamics have prompted an evolution in the IMF’s legal regime will be ascertained. At the same time, the analysis considers the emergence of new actors in international economic cooperation, next to traditional subjects of public international law (States and international organizations). Among these actors, reference is made to the “Groups” comprising most powerful economies as well as emerging economies (G7/G8, G20), to the networks established among national regulatory and surveillance financial authorities (e.g. Basel Committee, IOSCO, IAIS, FSB), and to the “Clubs” within which public debt issues are discussed. In the original 1944 project, through the IMF and its Articles of Agreement an “internationalization” of the economic sovereignty of States was featured. Indeed, States would be bound by international legal obligations regarding their exchange policies, and the IMF would concur to specify them exercising its powers for the establishment and modification of so-called “par values”. At present, prescriptive obligations have been mostly changed into hortatory obligations of conduct, but the Fund has gained an active role in directing national economic policies through its surveillance and, above all, financial assistance activity. However, it also interacts with the above mentioned actors: even if their structure, functioning, and activities are alien to an international law regime, they have nonetheless proved to be effective in influencing legislative processes within States and, more relevant for our purposes, in shaping the scope and content of the Fund’s functions. The volume is articulated in six chapters: I. The IMF as an international organization; II. The code of conduct for exchange rate polices and surveillance under the Articles of Agreement; III. Balance of payment assistance; IV. The IMF and developing countries; V. The IMF and international financial crises; VI. The IMF and sovereign debt crises.