Despite the absence of a dedicated legal or institutional framework governing sovereign debt, the interests of government debtors and their creditors are balanced through a plethora of private and public ordering mechanisms. This Article looks at ‘ultra vires’ debt, or debt issued beyond the powers of the issuer, as an important element of the debtor-creditor relationship, and a potential source of tension. It describes a situation whereby a sovereign debtor issues a financial obligation in violation of its own domestic laws. […]