GLOBAL financial hubs are also global legal hubs. Companies converge on places where money is available, and often leave with fresh funds after promising to have payment disputes resolved in the same place. A degree of legal certainty provides confidence for creditors, which in turn results in lower rates for borrowers.That, at least, is how it is supposed to work. In practice, when companies blow up, financial agreements tend to as well. That possibility rockets when governments suddenly become involved. Exhibit number one is a legal battle in New York between a Cayman-registered hedge fund and Anglo Irish Bank.For those who have lost count of the institutions that were pulverised by the financial crisis, Anglo Irish was an erstwhile star of Ireland’s banking scene, which rose quickly from inauspicious roots during Ireland’s heady growth in the 1990s, only to rack up enormous property-related losses when the bubble burst. In 2009 it was nationalised, and in 2011 it was melded into another state-owned institution.Most of Anglo’s debt was raised in Europe, but in 2005 $200m-worth of notes were issued in America to...