Daniel D. Bradlow

Regulatory frameworks for water resources management - a comparative study

Water is a scarce and finite resource with no substitute, and upon which the very existence of life on earth depends. The challenges facing water resources are daunting. The Millennium Development Goals aim, inter alia, at reducing by half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Although progress thus far is not encouraging, it is hoped that necessary actions will be taken to achieve this goal during the remaining period. Such actions include financial, institutional, and legal measures. Indeed, without the appropriate legal framework, the ability of the state to regulate, control, and allocate its water resources is hampered; its role in ensuring their efficient and proper use is hindered; and its right to protect those resources is challenged. This study of the regulatory frameworks for water resources management examines water legislation in sixteen jurisdictions, and highlights, in a comparative manner, the key elements needed for an effective regulatory framework. Chapter 1 traces the relevance and importance assigned to water legislation by the different international conferences and forums, including the Mar del Plata, Dublin, and Rio, and the guidance provided by those conferences for preparing such legislation. Chapter 2 surveys the regulatory frameworks for water resources management in sixteen jurisdictions, based on certain key elements. Those jurisdictions were selected based on the availability and accessibility of a water law, as well as on the need to represent different regions and legal systems of the world. Chapter 3 presents a comparative analysis of these regulatory frameworks based on the same elements. The analysis examines the main similarities and differences in the approaches adopted by the jurisdictions selected. Chapter 4 highlights essential elements that need to be addressed in any regulatory framework for water resources management, and identifies emerging trends in water legislation. Finally, Chapter 5 underscores the relevance and importance of the regulatory framework, and specifies conditions supporting its utility and efficacy.

Legal Aspects of Foreign Direct Investment

Preface C. Grossman. Part A: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) A. Escher. 1. Joint Introduction D.D. Bradlow, A. Escher. 2. Current Developments and Definition of FDI. 3. Legal Issues for National Policy Makers. 4. Legal Issues for Foreign Investors. 5. The Emerging Global Law on FDI. Part B: The Emerging International Law on FDI and Related Areas. 1. The World Bank Guidelines on the Treatment of Foreign Direct Investment S. Schlemmer-Schulte. 2. Bilateral and Multilateral Investment Treaties T. Mc Ghie. 3. Worker Rights and Foreign Direct Investment J.I. Levinson. 4. International Environmental Law and Foreign Direct Investment D. Hunter, S. Porter. 5. FDI and International Protection of Intellectual Property I. Selting. 6. Institutional Strengthening of Public Sector Procurement E. de Laurentiis. Part C: Legal and Financial Framework of Promoting FDI in Capital -- Importing and Capital -- Exporting Countries. 1. Asia Yi Li, S. Desai, N. Moller. 2. Africa A. Tejuoso, D.D. Bradlow. 3. Central and Latin America C. Acevedo, A. Soltero, S. Bacile. 4. Europe A. Vashkevich, P. Shevtsov, W.A. Adam.

The operational policies of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation

International financial institutions (‘IFIs’), such as the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (‘IFC’), have progressively refined their own operational policies and established institutional accountability mechanisms, such as the Inspection Panel and Compliance Advisory Ombudsman, in response to external and internal demands for their enhanced accountability. This article argues that these two developments are instrumental in transforming IFIs such as the World Bank and the IFC into law-making and law-governed institutions. We argue that the operational policies, as well as the institutional processes surrounding these policies (that is, rule-making, rule-application and rule-enforcement processes), should be assessed in legal terms – even though the legal nature of the operational policies are contested, and the policies are only applicable to IFI staff and their borrowers. The main objective of this article is to provide an analysis in support of this contention.

Assessing International Financial Reform

As is clear from the large number of financial crises that the world has experienced since the 1980s, the current international financial governance arrangements have not always functioned effectively. In fact, at least since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, there has been general agreement that the existing arrangements for international financial governance, often referred to as the “global financial architecture” needs to be reformed. This general agreement led to the formation of the G20 and, in 1999 to the creation of the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) in which financial regulators from the G7 countries and key international organizations meet to share information and coordinate their activities. However, over time, the attention paid to this topic has been inversely proportional to the wellbeing of the global financial system. Consequently, during most of the early years of the millennium, the topic was not high on the international agenda. This began to change as signs that the global political economy could be running into problems began to appear. There was an agreement at the 2006 International Monetary Fund (IMF or Fund) Annual Meeting to reform IMF governance. In 2008, the World Bank Group (the World Bank or the Bank) agreed to create a new seat for an additional African Director, although this has not been implemented. More recently the leadership in the Fund and the Bank each appointed a high level commission to study their governance - the Manuel Committee was appointed by the IMF and the Zedillo Commission by the World Bank. In addition, the G20 summits in 2008 and 2009 devoted considerable attention to reforming key financial governance institutions, in particular the IMF and the FSF, now reconstituted as the Financial Stability Board. These developments suggest that there could be changes in the international financial architecture in the short- to medium-term. This article assesses the actual significance of the reforms that have either recently been implemented or that are under consideration and the potential they might create for further international financial governance reform. In undertaking this evaluation, the article seeks to answer five questions: What standards should we use in assessing the adequacy of any set of arrangements for international financial governance? What are the problems with the current international financial architecture? What, in fact, has been achieved in terms of reforming international financial governance? What more can be achieved in the short run? And what more needs to be achieved, over the medium to long term, if we are to eventually have an effectively functioning international financial architecture?

Southern African Governments, Multilateral Development Banks, Non-State Actors, and Sustainable Infrastructure: Managing Changing Relationships

There is a need for the countries of Southern Africa to invest in building infrastructure, for which purpose they can be expected to utilise the services of multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDB-funded infrastructure projects often become arenas for debate over the roles and responsibilities of different actors in the development process. This article discusses the fact that there is no longer a clear consensus on the relative responsibilities of governments, MDBs and non-state actors in regard to infrastructure projects, and analyses how these new tensions in the relations between these three actors could complicate efforts to develop the infrastructure so urgently needed in Southern Africa.

The G20 and Africa: A Critical Assessment

The increased globalisation over the last 20 years has made effective global economic governance more important than ever. This period has witnessed the rise of a number of new international governance actors, such as the Group of Twenty (G-20) and the Financial Stability Board. The paper proposes a five-part test to evaluate how the existing global governance actors serve the interests of all stakeholders in the global economy. The test is based on five factors indicating good global governance. These are the goals relating to global economic governance being followed by the governance entity, respect for applicable international legal principles, good administrative practice, comprehensive coverage of all relevant issues and all affected stakeholders, and coordinated specialization. The paper uses these five factors to develop a framework for assessing the responsiveness of the G-20 to African issues and concerns. The final part of the paper applies this framework to the documentary outputs of the seven G-20 summits held during 2008-2012 to assess their responsiveness to Africa. It looks at how the communiques and other key documents from each of the summits address the issues arising from each part of the test and then makes an assessment of how well the G-20 has satisfied that part of the test over the course of the period from 2008-2012. The paper concludes that the G-20 is not fully satisfying any of the five parts of the test, and therefore fails to reach its full potential as a global economic governance actor.

The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 3: International Financial Institutions and Global Legal Governance

This is the third edition of The World Bank Legal Review. The rule of law is not just a set of rules and their judicial application. As the third volume of the World Bank legal review makes clear in its subtitle, International Financial Institutions and Global Legal Governance, the law is also about policy making, institutional frameworks, international politics, development, and ultimately-freedom. The law broadens the scope of the questions that people ask, and so helps policy makers find solutions to complex, multifaceted problems. To do that effectively, however, legal research and legal practitioners must focus on how the law can support innovative and pragmatic responses to development challenges. The law also has a role to play at the micro level of community-driven development. Ethiopia, for example, has used intellectual property tools to renegotiate the distribution and selling arrangements of its coffee production with multinational enterprises. The results have benefited both local farmers and traders.

How Well Does the G20 Reflect African Interests and Priorities?: Some Thoughts Following the Los Cabos, Mexico Summit

The leaders of the G20 countries have now held seven summits -- enough to begin critically evaluating how well the G20 serves the interest of specific sub-parts of the international community. The purpose of this paper is to assess how well the G20 responds to African interests. It is divided into three parts. The first is a brief description of the most recent summit, held on June 18-19, 2012 in Los Cabos, Mexico. The second part is a brief discussion of the criteria that will be used in this evaluation. The third part is an assessment of the G20 against these criteria.

Reforming Global Economic Governance: A Strategy for Middle Powers in the G20

In this paper I argue that middle powers that are members of the G20 can extract substantial benefit from their participation in the G20 if they have both a clear long term vision of global economic governance and a plan of action that is based on obtainable short term objectives. In the article I address four issues. The first is that the institutional arrangements for global economic governance will remain unstable until the current process of changes in the balance of global political and economic power plays itself out. The second is that, given the changing international power dynamics, the current “manager” of the global economy, the G20, is unlikely to be a stable entity. Consequently it can only be effective if it focuses on the relatively narrow range of economic issues of common interest to all G20 members. Third, middle-size countries need a long term vision of global financial governance to guide their conduct in the G20 and other forums of global governance. Fourth, the middle powers will only be able to capitalize on whatever short term opportunities may arise from their participation in the G20 if they identify a set of achievable short term objectives and devise a strategy for reaching them.

Reforming the Global Financial Architecture: Is Real Change Coming?

This article evaluates the prospects for meaningful reform of the global financial architecture. It begins by looking at the most significant problems with the current architecture. Thereafter it classifies the current reform efforts into three areas -- reforms that in fact have been implemented, reforms that have been proposed but not yet implemented, and reforms that are only under discussion. The paper then evaluates the adequacy of these reform efforts and makes some brief proposals for future reform efforts.