
Monica Widmann is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research explores economic reform, sovereign debt politics, and the politics of global economic governance. Her book project analyzes the role of US courts in settling disputes between creditors and debtor states. It examines the change in US foreign policy from one of recognizing absolute sovereignty to that of restrictive sovereignty, and why US courts gained the power to adjudicate over disputes involving sovereign states from the State Department. The book also explores the factors influencing judicial decision-making and the unintended consequences of judicial decisions on the debtor state's economy. To examine the development and role of US courts in disputes involving sovereign states, she collected and utilized three new data sets covering a time frame from 1811 until March 2022 that provide detailed information on sovereign litigation cases.