Tackling climate change through adaptation finance in the Least Developed Countries: Is the LDC Fund still fit for purpose?

This paper considers the challenges confronting LDCs in meeting the adaptation and mitigation requirements brought on by the climate crisis and addresses the question as to whether the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF), which is a key source of LDC climate adaptation finance, is still fit for purpose?climate change; least developed countries; climate finance; adaptation; mitigation; sustainable development

Navigating new landscapes : the contribution of socio-legal scholarship in mapping the plurality of international economic law and locating power in international economic relations

The evolution of international economic law in the past two decades has been characterised by the growth and diversification of international economic actors, the expansion in the substantive areas governed by international law, and, crucially, the proliferation of multiple sites of international economic governance. This web of multi-layered international economic governance is, in turn, underpinned by complex dynamics of power which structure the legal and economic relations between the subjects of international economic law and other actors impacted by international legal rules and regulation. The challenge for international legal scholarship lay not only in mapping the multiple sites of international economic governance but also in unmasking the power dynamics inherent in international economic relations. Locating and analysing power relations underlying international economic law is to crucial to understanding the cause and effect of international economic rules and institutions for rulemaking. Conventional legal scholarship with its doctrinal focus, while useful in providing the foundational basis for analysis, cannot adequately capture the complexity of contemporary international economic law. Socio-legal approaches may be able to overcome these epistemological limitations by supplying: a) the methodologies to study international economic law beyond a focus on rules and institutions; and b) the critical theoretical lens to understand the power dynamics inherent in international legal relations. The objective of this paper is twofold: firstly, it will seek to identify the contributions of socio-legal approaches to the study of international economic law; and secondly, it will explore how socio-legal scholarship can provide a methodological and theoretical framework to construct an understanding of the pluralistic nature of international economic regulatory regimes and their underlying dynamics of power. In doing so, the paper will also consider the value of juxtaposing an empirical methodology for mapping legal regimes with a critical normative approach for analysing power relations in international economic law

Reviving the emperor’s old clothes : the good governance agenda, development and international investment law

The concept of ‘good governance’ has long occupied a central space in contemporary development policy. Originally conceived and promulgated widely by development agencies, notably the World Bank, in response to concerns over the effectiveness of development assistance, the good governance agenda quickly gained broader currency as a tool of international economic law and policymaking. In the realm of international investment, the notion of good governance has been regularly enrolled by its proponents to advocate for and facilitate institutional reforms in developing countries aimed at creating what is termed ‘an enabling climate’ for foreign direct investment (FDI). Here, the design of the institutional framework of domestic governance, particularly those which manage and regulate the entry and conduct of foreign investors, are seen as crucial to capacity of developing countries to attract and sustain FDI and thereby engendering economic growth and development. In terms of international investment law, the language of good governance, its associated rule of law narrative and their relationship to development outcomes have been used to justify the normative and institutional evolution of law and policy in this area. Specifically, notions of stability, predictability and efficacy that feature prominently on the good governance and rule of law agenda have been widely conscripted to legitimise the rapid proliferation of international investment agreements (IIAs) and the attendant ascendency of the investment arbitration regime over the past two decades

Who's 'free riding'? A critique of the World Bank's approach to non-concessional borrowing in low income countries

This paper considers the current proposals by the World Bank to curb the potential for ‘free riding’ in relation to financial support and multilateral debt relief to low-income countries. Measures to address the ‘free rider’ issue will form a pivotal plank in the World Bank’s future strategy towards low-income borrowing members and will also inform some of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s policies in this respect. This paper analyses the proposals in light of current trends in development financing policy and practice, particularly the shifting patterns of official and private financial flows to developing countries, and demonstrates the disjuncture between the conceptual approach of the Bank and Fund to the issue of ‘free riding’ and their operational practice over the past two decades. It is argued here that the Bank proposals are less motivated by a concern over the future debt sustainability of their low-income borrowers but by the realpolitik and financial exigencies facing the Bretton Woods institutions today. Consequently, the measures proposed are not only operationally flawed but represent instead new mechanisms to continue binding IDA countries to financing flows – and thereby financial discipline – by the Bank and the Fund during a time where these institutions are struggling to maintain their operational relevance and political legitimacy

A new regulatory discipline : Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) in the framework of postcolonial international law and global governance

This thesis is an examination of the Poverty Strategy Paper (PRSP) approach to regulating countries' access to external financing. It locates the PRSP project in the context of contemporary global governance and postcolonial international law and considers its impact on third world state engagement with the international economy and the regulatory webs and institutions, notably the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which underpin these relations. Approaching the subject from an inter- disciplinary perspective, straddling discourses of law, political economy and sociology, this research combines an empirical methodology for examining the linkages between the normative effect of the PRSP framework and the actors who advance these norms with a critical analysis of the power dynamics which underlie the relationships of the subjects and objects of the framework. The thesis demonstrates that far from its emancipatory language, the PRSP project, both in its operational and discursive manifestations, foreclose possibilities for the radical revision of the current asymmetrical rules and institutions of international economic law. Conversely, findings from this research suggest that the PRSP framework adversely reconfigures the form and substance of third world engagement with international law and the global economy. The PRSP project reframes fundamental tenets of international cooperation and global communal responsibility by problematising the state in the context of economic and social development; and constituting nation states as primary sites for the fulfilment of economic and social rights ascribed collectively. This restructuring takes place through a series of legal and institutional interventions of the PRSP framework, as well as through shifts in the regulatory mechanisms, notably the doctrine of conditionality, governing relationships between third world states and their external financiers. In this manner, the PRSP framework introduces a new regulatory discipline on third world states and represents a continuation, if not exacerbation, of the asymmetrical sovereignty characterising postcolonial international law and the imperial nature of the 'development' project sustaining the logic of these relationships, with significant impact on the potential for resistance and reform

Audit as accountability : technical authority and expertise in the governance of private financing for development

The paper examines the emergence of a new landscape of international development finance that is blurring traditional boundaries between public and private resources for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global public goods (GPGs). In the SDG financing ecosystem, private actors are no longer passive bystanders in the development process but as active contributors to and investors in development projects and programmes. The paper argues that the emerging ‘private turn’ in the architecture of development finance represents a technology of governance that is rooted in the assemblage of international development policy and practice. This regime constitutes an emerging complex and often problematic framework of organising and managing countries’ access to external finance and establishing their terms of engagement with the broader global economy

Tackling climate change through adaptation finance in the Least Developed Countries: Is the LDC Fund still fit for purpose?

This paper considers the challenges confronting LDCs in meeting the adaptation and mitigation requirements brought on by the climate crisis and addresses the question as to whether the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF), which is a key source of LDC climate adaptation finance, is still fit for purpose

Tackling climate change through adaptation finance in the Least Developed Countries: Is the LDC Fund still fit for purpose?

This paper considers the challenges confronting LDCs in meeting the adaptation and mitigation requirements brought on by the climate crisis and addresses the question as to whether the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF), which is a key source of LDC climate adaptation finance, is still fit for purpose

A new regulatory discipline : Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) in the framework of postcolonial international law and global governance

This thesis is an examination of the Poverty Strategy Paper (PRSP) approach to regulating countries' access to external financing. It locates the PRSP project in the context of contemporary global governance and postcolonial international law and considers its impact on third world state engagement with the international economy and the regulatory webs and institutions, notably the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which underpin these relations. Approaching the subject from an inter- disciplinary perspective, straddling discourses of law, political economy and sociology, this research combines an empirical methodology for examining the linkages between the normative effect of the PRSP framework and the actors who advance these norms with a critical analysis of the power dynamics which underlie the relationships of the subjects and objects of the framework. The thesis demonstrates that far from its emancipatory language, the PRSP project, both in its operational and discursive manifestations, foreclose possibilities for the radical revision of the current asymmetrical rules and institutions of international economic law. Conversely, findings from this research suggest that the PRSP framework adversely reconfigures the form and substance of third world engagement with international law and the global economy. The PRSP project reframes fundamental tenets of international cooperation and global communal responsibility by problematising the state in the context of economic and social development; and constituting nation states as primary sites for the fulfilment of economic and social rights ascribed collectively. This restructuring takes place through a series of legal and institutional interventions of the PRSP framework, as well as through shifts in the regulatory mechanisms, notably the doctrine of conditionality, governing relationships between third world states and their external financiers. In this manner, the PRSP framework introduces a new regulatory discipline on third world states and represents a continuation, if not exacerbation, of the asymmetrical sovereignty characterising postcolonial international law and the imperial nature of the 'development' project sustaining the logic of these relationships, with significant impact on the potential for resistance and reform.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo