CreditSlips

A few days ago, I put up a post about a very interesting recent article by Richard Kilpatrick on highly sticky (and inefficiently so) shipping contracts.

HT: Joseph Blocher

On November 6, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case only a lawyer--and probably only a commercial or bankruptcy lawyer--could love, Merit Management Group v. FTI Consulting. Simplifying quite a bit, the issue is whether a payment by wire transfer (or presumably a check) is "made by" the bank who implements the funds transfer, or the customer who initiates the transfer.

Adam Lerrick, of the American Enterprise Institute, has offered an intriguing approach to the Republic of Venezuela/PDVSA debt problem. Call a spade a spade. The distinction in the market between Republic of Venezuela and PDVSA bonds has always been artificial and the market has normally perceived it as such.

Most of us who have had to read hundreds of commercial contracts for either our jobs as lawyers or for our research have also necessarily read lots of “choice-of-law” provisions. I know I have. But I am also embarrassed to say that I never paid much attention to many of the minor variations in language that frequently show up. For example, whether the clause says that the bond is “governed by New York law” or that its terms are to be “construed in accordance with New York law” is a variation that I’ve seen, but have never given much thought to.