Law Commons^™

Exiting The Disaster, Evading The Responsibility? Wadi Al-Qamar -- The Moon Valley, Suzan Nada

Perspectives

This essay explores a case that delivered no results for the complainants, where harm was not prevented, and where stakeholders who filed the complaint were not compensated. Investigated by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Wadi al-Qamar case illustrates some of the limitations of accountability mechanisms in limiting the harms caused directly or indirectly by projects in which the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) invest.

Ending 30 Years Of Imf Exceptionalism: A Call For An Accountability Mechanism At The International Monetary Fund, Luiz Vieria

Perspectives

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel (WBIP or Panel), created as the result of grass-roots and international pressure on the Bank to address the well-documented negative impacts on marginalised communities of the Bank-financed Narmada dam and similar projects.

The establishment of the world’s first independent accountability mechanism (IAM) at the World Bank led to the creation of similar mechanisms at nearly all international financial institutions (IFIs), with the IMF an important exception. The establishment of the WBIP and other IAMs was a step-change in accountability, as previously IFIs were only accountable to shareholders …

The River Of Accountability Mechanisms: Then And Now, Suresh Nanwani

Perspectives

In 1993, the river of international accountability mechanisms (IAMs) commenced from its source – the World Bank Inspection Panel (The Panel). In its journey the river was fed by the tributaries of similar accountability mechanisms from other development institutions, including four regional development banks – the Inter-American Development Bank in 1994, the Asian Development Bank in 1995, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2003, and the African Development Bank in 2006. It also welcomed other entities – bilateral institutions like Japan Bank for International Cooperation (2003) and Proparco (2018), United Nations Development Program (2014) and other organizations like …

Thirty Years Of Accountability In International Development: Insights From The General Counsel Of The World Bank Group, Christopher H. Stephens

Perspectives

The creation of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel in 1993 was a groundbreaking moment in international development. The first accountability mechanism of its kind, it established a precedent for accountability in development that has been followed by multiple development banks and international financial institutions over the last decades. Today, the credibility of international financial institutions rests significantly on the mechanisms that they put in place to check their own behavior and the avenues they offer for affected communities and individuals to raise questions of harm related to the projects financed by these institutions. This essay is a reflection on the …

Legal Risk And Accountability In Development Finance: Lessons From Jam V. International Finance Corporation, Michelle Harrison, Shannon Marcoux

Perspectives

In a landmark decision in 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Jam v. International Finance Corporation that international organizations like the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank Group, can be sued in U.S. courts, ending the “absolute immunity” from suit that they had long claimed. The Jam lawsuit arose out of IFC’s gross mishandling of the Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant project in Gujarat, India, which has destroyed the livelihoods, environment, and way of life of local communities living in its shadow. The lawsuit, and especially the clash between IFC’s sweeping assertions of …

World Bank's Roadmap And The Inspection Panel's Human Rights Responsibilities, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, C.P. Chandrasekhar

Perspectives

The World Bank has been under pressure to devise a process for “evolving” its mission, operations, and resources, acknowledging that decades of engagement with low- and middle-income countries has resulted, paradoxically and contrary to its official mission, in a “crisis of development.” The Bank bluntly notes in the opening to its paper “Evolving the World Bank Group’s Mission, Operations, and Resources: A Roadmap,” issued in December 2022, “after decades of progress, growth and poverty reduction have stalled.” Indeed, this “crisis of development” threatens to unleash political instability around the world.

Reflections On The Role Of The Panel, Charles Di Leva

Perspectives

Over the past thirty years, the World Bank and the Inspection Panel have had a supportive relationship regarding the principle of accountability, particularly as applied to the field of development finance operations and the role and responsibility of the Bank as a multilateral public sector financial institution. This relationship has been apparent in at least three key aspects: i) following the Bank’s lead, many development institutions around the globe have taken steps to improve their own accountability and developed independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) modeled on the Inspection Panel; ii) the Bank and other development institutions have been supporting the development …

Can Mediation Provide Remedy For Human Rights Violations? A Quest For Justice Using A Development Bank Accountability Mechanism, Natalie Bugalski, David Pred

Perspectives

This essay describes what it takes—the enormous tenacity, solidarity, courage and skill required—for communities and their civil society partners to seek recourse through the dispute resolution processes of development bank accountability mechanisms. While these mechanisms can be the crucial centerpiece of an effective strategy, their critical shortcomings mean that community advocates must often engage in Olympian advocacy gymnastics to achieve even a small measure of redress. The essay makes recommendations for strengthening community-centered accountability in development finance, so that remediation and prevention of harm become the norm, and not the rare exception.

The Critical Contribution Of Independent Accountability Mechanisms (Iams) To The Global Governance Paradigm, Owen Mcintyre

Perspectives

For several decades now, the environmental and social safeguard policies adopted by international financial institutions (IFIs), along with the related accountability frameworks provided by the independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) established by each, have been at the very forefront of a global movement to extend good environmental and social governance values to the practice of international development finance. The complex of substantive and procedural standards of institutional conduct required under multilateral development bank (MDB) safeguard policies in respect of the assessment and implementation of bank-funded development projects or activities exemplifies the phenomenon of so-called “transnational” or “global” law - the rich …

An Increased Normalization Of Iams Faces Ground Realities: Lack Of Transparency Impedes Access To Iams, Hamid Sharif

Perspectives

The creation of the Inspection Panel at the World Bank has led to the emergence of a norm that international financial institutions (IFIs) must hold themselves accountable to project-affected people through independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs). AIIB as a 21^st century bank reflects this normalization of IAMs. As a new MDB, AIIB’s charter mandates creation of an oversight body that includes the independent accountability mechanism or the Project-affected People’s mechanism (PPM). The PPM is aligned with many features of IFI’s IAMs while incorporating some innovations.

The central question asked by civil society and board members across IFIs is why there …

Between Disruption And Legitimation Of Development: A Critical Perspective On The Inspection Panel And A Call For More Radical Thinking Within The Accountability Community, Dustin Schäfer

Perspectives

The essay explores the Inspection Panel’s (the Panel) conflicting role of providing accountability for negatively affected people while facing political limitations. The Panel has proven its potential to disrupt harmful development practices. However, by reproducing “dev-speak” it also continuously contributes to legitimizing the same assumptions of “how to do development”, and thus to the continuation of harmful development practices. This ambivalent effect is inherent to the Panel because of its politically inhibited and depoliticized (i.e. technocratic) environment. To overcome this long-lasting and structural condition will require critical examination of the concept of development and the role it plays in …

Rethinking 'What Counts' As Accountability, Jonathan Fox

Perspectives

The current accountability impasse suggests it may be time to rethink core concepts, as well as the field’s underlying theories of change. The idea of accountability is malleable, ambiguous — and contested. This fuzziness poses challenges for both theory and practice – how do we know what strategies bolster accountability – or whether accountability produces its expected effects? This think piece recognizes the challenge of defining ‘what counts’ as accountability, unpacks a longstanding theory of change - that sunshine is the best disinfectant - and considers some information-based reform initiatives to identify missing links in the causal chain between transparency …

Ending Violence In Development Finance Actions To Affirmatively Prevent And Stop Reprisals Against Rights Defenders, Gregory Berry

Perspectives

This Essay makes a case for stronger enforcement and implementation of zero-tolerance policies on reprisals within Development Finance Institutions. It argues that for DFIs to inculcate any hopeful vision of a just and inclusive transition to a sustainable future, they must begin by affirmatively cutting at the roots of reprisals. The essay particularly emphasizes two essential changes. First, Independent Accountability and Audit Mechanisms must be empowered to protect the safety of defenders by self-initiating investigations where there are credible concerns of reprisals, and by accepting anonymously submitted complaints. Second, DFIs must evolve to grow teeth for enforcing measures against retaliatory …

Thirty Years Of Community-Centered Accountability In International Development Key Developments At The World Bank Inspection Panel, Dilek Barlas

Perspectives

Through the lens of important cases, this essay reflects on major developments that occurred at the Panel during the tenure of the author as the Executive Secretary of the World Bank Inspection Panel and shows how the Panel has evolved to improve accessibility, has influenced overall development policies, and has become a catalyst for institutional change. The essay observes that the Panel’s success has largely been due to its structural and operational independence, reporting as it does directly to the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. However, there are challenges facing the Panel on certain issues, including most importantly its independence, …

Three Decades Of Seeking Elusive Remedies, Richard E. Bissell

Perspectives

Remedy is a topic to be approached with some trepidation in the area of accountability. Throughout three decades of proliferating International Accountability Mechanisms ( IAMs), remedy has been the issue least addressed by leadership. Most management and board members find it threatening, wherever a remedial action falls on the spectrum, from an apology for error to financial compensation. The pursuit of remedy builds on the demonstrated existence of harm, which is embarrassing at the least, and brings a focus on consequences and actionable steps for those people whose lives have been damaged as well as for environmental violations. This short …

Glass Half-Full Or Glass Half-Empty? Thirty Years Of Accountability At The Inspection Panel--The Impact Of Its Work And What The Data Tells Us, Ramanie Kunanayagam, Mark Goldsmith, Ibrahim James Pam, Serge Selwan, Richard Wyness, Ayako Kubodera, Camila Jorge Do Amarel, Rupes Dalai

Perspectives

“A stroke of a genius”, “a bold experiment in transparency and accountability that has worked to the benefit of all concerned”, “a precedent under international law”, and a “citizen-based accountability mechanism” are some of the ways in which close observers have described the World Bank Inspection Panel, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2023.

Venezuela Undermines Gold Miner Crystallex's Attempts To Recover On Its Icsid Award, Sam Wesson

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is High-Finance An Extractive Sector?, Saskia Sassen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The article examines some of the key features of high finance (henceforth, simply finance) from the angle of the mix of capabilities that constitute the sector. It has a radically different organizing logic from that of, for instance, the typical mass consumer-oriented corporation. The article posits that finance has de-bordered the narrowly defined notion of finance as simply "financial firms and markets." It emphasizes its capacity to financialize a growing range of material and non-material elements. This has also meant that the sector by now encompasses a very broad range of financial and nonfinancial institutions, different types of jurisdictions, a …

Shock Therapy, Social Engineering, And Financial Discipline: What Does An Increasingly Financialized World Mean For Democratic Participation?, Layan Charara

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Over the last several decades, the Bretton Woods Institutions have come to be drivers of policy in the realms of economic liberalization and development, exceeding their original mandates of fostering monetary cooperation and facilitating post-war reconstruction. The structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have engendered mixed results–delivering some countries from financial crises, while inciting riots and compounding state failure in others. Such varied experiences suggest there is some disconnect between the conditions to lending promulgated by these institutions and the realities on the ground. This Note will trace the evolution of high conditionality lending …

Assessing The Potential For Global Economic Governance Reform, Daniel D. Bradlow

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Every dynamic social system’s adaptive capacity is finite. Eventually, the ability of the system’s legal and institutional arrangements to adapt to the changing operational context is exhausted. At this point, unless the system is significantly reformed, it begins losing its legitimacy and efficacy.

This article contends that the structure, operation and scale of the global economy has changed so dramatically that the current arrangements for global economic governance are approaching this crisis moment. They are failing to deliver an inclusive, sustainable and efficient international economic system that can contribute to peace, prosperity and human welfare. Their governance arrangements and operating …

"Development" Versus" Sustainable Development"?: (Re-) Constructing The International Bank For Sustainable Development, Johanna A.P. Lorenzo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article scrutinizes the potential contribution of the World Bank, as an international economic organization, to the sustainable development agenda. Analyzing the reforms in policies, procedures, and organizational structure that accompanied the Bank's involvement in ostensibly political,non-economic matters such as human rights, environmental protection, and good governance--all of which are critical components of sustainable development--this Article contends that, contrary to the so-called mission creep argument, the evolution of the Bank's mandate is legally defensible and normatively desirable. Instead of amending its constituent instrument, the Bank has optimized the teleological-evolutionary approach to treaty interpretation to expand and reconstruct its mandate in …

The United Nations Convention On The Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Arbitral Awards: The First Four Years, A. Jason Mirabito

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Standard Investment Agreement: Text And Comments, Philippe Kahn

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Why China Established The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, Daniel C.K. Chow

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On January 16, 2016, China officially opened the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for business, representing what might be a seismic shift in economic power from the United States to China. The AIIB creates a challenge to the U.S.-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), two venerable international financial institutions created at the end of World War II. The World Bank lends money to developing countries to promote economic development, but these loans come with conditions called the Washington Consensus--a set of policies designed to promote the use of private markets, protect the environment, protect human and workers' rights, …

Creditor Participation In The Hipc Debt Relief Initiatives: The Case Of Guyana, Magnus Saxegaard

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Precluding The Treasure Hunt: How The World Bank Group Can Help Investors Circumnavigate Sovereign Immunity Obstacles To Icsid Award Execution, Joseph M. Cardosi

Pepperdine Law Review

This Comment highlights the frustrating road that investors travel in search of assets when states do not honor arbitration awards and discusses how the World Bank Group can unify investor–state arbitrations to preclude such hollow victories for investors. Part II introduces the contemporary framework of investor–state arbitration, including an overview of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID or the Centre), a summary of the scope of noncompliance with investor–state arbitration awards, and the unique ICSID enforcement mechanism used to address challenges to awards and noncompliance. Part III provides examples of the challenges investors face in award execution …

A Review Of "Values In Translation: Human Rights And The Culture Of The World Bank," By Galit A. Sarfaty, Amanda Craig

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Who's In Charge Of Global Finance?, Michael S. Barr

Articles

The global financial crisis caused widespread harm not just to the financial system, but also to millions of households and businesses and to the global economy. The crisis revealed substantive, fundamental weaknesses in global financial regulation and raised serious questions about whether national regulators and the international financial regulatory system could ever be up to the task of overseeing global finance. This Article analyzes post-crisis reforms with two questions in mind: First, how can we build an effective international financial architecture with more than one architect? Second, can we build a system that is legitimate and accountable? The Article suggests …

The Human Rights And Wrongs Of Foreign Direct Investment: Addressing The Need For An Analytical Framework, David Shea Bettwy

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

The Wto And The Anti-Corruption Movement, Padideh Ala'i

Padideh Ala'i

This article explores the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in promoting good governance while placing WTO within the larger framework of the ongoing global anti-corruption movement. Governmental policies aimed at fighting corruption are part of the good governance criteria set forth by the World Bank and other donor agencies. An important element of good governance is transparency, which has also been one of the pillars of the multilateral trading system. This article argues that from the perspective of the post-Cold War anti-corruption movement, the WTO is an important institution because it provides a comparatively successful forum for the …