The present course of assessing debt sustainability – toward further econometric sophistication – risks being more harmful than helpful. To develop support for this claim, this paper first recounts what economic theory says about sovereign debt, and then continues by analysing the methodology and approach that the assessment of debt sustainability rests on today. Building on these accounts, this paper argues that debt sustainability should be lifted away from the narrow econometric seat where it is now found and, instead, should be placed in between problem debt on the one side and economic and social human rights on the other. The paper concludes by proposing an orderly framework promoting equal rights of debtor and creditor nations in debt negotiations. Importantly, it is up to the indebted nation to decide on the sustainability of its sovereign debt, not the creditors.

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