Renegotiating Previous Governments\u27 Privatization Deals: The 1997 U.K. Windfall Tax on Utilities and International Law

Investment in privatized utilities leads to a very particular form of political risk--the risk that regulatory conditions change and special taxes are imposed, all measures within the sovereign powers of the state. The normal forms of protection against political risk (investment insurance, stabilization clauses, international investment treaties and international arbitration clauses) have not yet caught up with the emergence of new forms of political risk. The 1997 UK windfall tax announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in that year\u27s budget speech is a case in point. This issue is not limited purely to the contemporary UK situation, but illustrates a structural situation which can, and is likely to be repeated wherever utilities are privatized, regulated and exposed to special industry taxes. Such actions are usually undertaken by a new government composed of parties hitherto opposed to privatization, which will be able to combine its previous opposition, and the values therein articulated with the ever present need of governments for new revenue to finance its political popularity objectives. This paper surveys shortly the possible responses by international law, mainly principles and practice of international investment protection, to situations which have recently arisen in the world privatization laboratory (the UK) and situations which are likely to arise in the many countries which currently copy the UK privatization model, once new governments come to power. The UK situation is of particular interest since in the absence of constitutional, federal or judicial constraints the prevailing concept of parliamentary supremacy means that any legal recourse can only be had from external sources of law

Perspectives on the Future of the Caucasus after the Second Chechnya Conflict. Papers from a Brainstorming Conference held at CEPS 27-28 January 2000. CEPS Working Document No. 148, July 2000

The problems surrounding the Chechen conflict are indeed many and difficult to tackle. This paper aims at unveiling some of the mysteries covering the issue of so-called “Islamic fundamentalism” in Chechnya. A comparison of the native Sufi branch of Islam and the imported Wahhaby ideology is made, in order to discover the contradictions and the conflicts that the spreading of the latter inflicted in the Chechen society. Furthermore, the paper investigates the main challenges President Aslan Maskhadov was facing at the beginning of his mandate, and the way he managed to cope with them. The paper does not attempt to cover all the aspects of the Chechen problem; nevertheless, a quick enumeration of other factors influencing the developments in Chechnya in the past three years is made. Individual papers include: A short introduction to the Chechen problem, by Alexandru Liono; Georgia and Abkhazia: proposals for a constitutional model, by Viacheslaw Chirikba; The Nagorno-Karabakh Question: an update, by Sergiu Celac; It's not about ancient hatreds, it's about current policies: Islam and stability in the Caucasus, by Brenda Shaffer; A regional security system for the Caucasus, by Bruno Coppieters; Economic survival strategies in North Caucasus, by Alexandru Liono; The Caspian dilemma: prosperity or conflict?, by Thomas Waelde, Sergei Vinogradov, and Armando Zamora; Caspian hydrocarbons, the politicisation of regional pipelines, and the destabilisation of the Caucasus, by Terry Adams; Prospects of a Stability Pact for the Caucasus: some preliminary speculations, by Sergiu Celac; Approaches to the stabilisation of the Caucasus, by Michael Emerson

Regulatory reform in the energy industry of Post-Soviet countries: same name, different content

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, D-21400 Kiel W 620 (155) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Internationale Investitionen im Energiesektor der frueheren Sowjetunion: zwischen wirtschaftspolitischem und rechtlichem Anspruch und der chaotischen Wirklichkeit jenseits des Kommunismus ; Vortrag gehalten am 19. November 1996

Available from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, D-21400 Kiel A 215416 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman