The
latest in
Hedge funds have been
known to use hardball tactics to make money. Now they have come up with a new
one: suing Greece in a human rights court to make good on its bond payments. The
novel approach would have the funds arguing in the European Court of Human
Rights that Greece had violated bondholder rights[.]
It's probably just a semantic
question (this may be the court with jurisdiction over the subject matter), but
it is certainly funny, in a strange way, to see hedge funds suing in a human
rights court. The optics are not the best. The legal argument goes as follows:
Legal experts suggest
that the investors may have a case because if Greece changes the terms of its
bonds so that investors receive less than they are owed, that could be viewed
as a property rights violation -- and in
Europe, property rights are human rights.
(Emphasis supplied.) Ron Paul
might say "We are all Europeans now!" And Mitt Romney might consider
apologizing for America not agreeing that property rights are human rights.