In Dealing Fairly with Developing Country Debt, philosophers, theologians, lawyers and economists examine questions such as how to balance obligations to repay a debt with potentially worsening poverty in the debtor country; and whether creditors should be held accountable - and if so, how - for loans to governments that are not even minimally representative of their citizens' interests.

The book is a collection of papers that were presented at a 2005 conference at the New School in connection with the Ford grant. Tomitova, who co-authored and presented one of the papers, says the project presents concrete alternatives to the current system of dealing with debt in developing countries. "Access to credit is fundamental to development, but we have to ensure that debt is treated responsibly and fairly throughout the world community," she explains. "This is not a problem that is going to go away anytime soon."

Tomitova is an International Business Law Fellow and a member of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law. She spent last summer in Rome, working for the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, an organization that works toward modernizing, harmonizing and coordinating private and commercial law between nation-states. Tomitova has also worked with the Clinton Foundation Global Initiative and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where she was a program associate and also served as associate editor of Ethics & International Affairs. She plans to spend the upcoming summer at Chadbourne & Parke LLP in its New York office.

By Laurie DePalo '09