The FT is right, then, that the courts need to urgently deal with the can of worms that has been opened by Judge Griesa. The consequences of his decision, if it’s allowed to stand, are unknowable, but they will certainly be huge. What would happen to Argentina’s judgment creditors, for instance, who held bonds but then reduced them to a judgment against Argentina? No one knows. What about creditors bearing other judgments against the country, like those who have won cases at ? What would happen to the preferred creditor status of the IMF and the World Bank? Could vultures start attacking payments to those institutions, too? And never mind emerging-market sovereigns: what would happen to standard US contracts, where a company might choose to pay one creditor while stiff-arming another? Would all such choices end up with creditors fighting each other in the courts, so long as they had a precious pari passu clause?