- With regard to changes in energy law, reference might be made to Thomas Wälde and Alan Page, Editorial (1993) 11 JERL, 1–5. Also, for a review of the author's impressions of the more significant events affecting the oil and gas industry, see Robert Pritchard, ‘What A Century’ (1999), 4 OGLTR.
- For a comprehensive and authentic account of the structure and organisation of the petroleum industry, see The British Petroleum Company Limited, Our Industry Petroleum (4th edn, London, 1970).
- The significance of this seminar was recorded by Laszlo Gombos and David Egerton-Smith in ‘An Account of the Formation, History and Development of the Section on Energy and Resources Law of the International Bar Association (IBA, 1987). Stavanger was chosen for the first seminar because of its strategic importance in the then burgeoning North Sea oil and gas industry. Seminar participants were ferried out to the nearby fjord to see one of the massive offshore production platforms under construction.
- The book was Wolfgang Friedman (ed), Public and Private Enterprise in Mixed Economies (Steven & Sons, London, 1974). I had, like countless other students of law around the world, been an admirer of Friedman, who had written and taught in jurisprudence and sociology of law, in comparative law (especially in the field of antitrust and state enterprises), and in international law (especially in the then emerging areas of international resource law and international development). Friedman had written or edited 25 books, including Legal Theory (1st edn, 1944) and Law in a Changing Society (1st edn, 1951) which went through many editions and translations. In his work, Friedman exhibited a profound moral sensitivity and sympathetic insight into opposing views. His violent death in a street robbery in New York in 1972 was a sad ending to a life devoted to the pursuit of peace and justice.
- These were the features identified, accurately in my view, by Lord Weidenfeld in his eulogy at the Memorial Service for the late Laszlo Gombos at St Mary le Bow Church, London, on 8 June 1992.
- TQM or ‘total quality management’ is said to represent the highest standard to which an organisation can aspire in terms of the systems it employs in providing products or services to its customers.
- There are innumerable examples. For one, see the Internet Journal of the CEPMLP: www.cepmlp.oig/journal.
- See Sol Linowitz, The Betrayed Profession (New York, 1994).
- This also motivated the commissioning by the IBA Section on Business Law of a review of these issues: Robert Pritchard (ed), Economic Development, Foreign Investment and the Law (Kluwer Law International, London, 1996).
- Robert Pritchard, ‘The Transformation in Foreign Investment Law—More than a Pendulum Swing?’ (1997), International Company & Comparative Law Review, 233–236.
- The importance of a country's reputation is a relatively recent and arresting proposition canvassed by Thomas Wälde in ‘Law, Contract and Reputation: What Works?’, Vol 3, Art 18, Internet Journal of the CEPMLP: www.cepmlp.org/journal.
- As Thomas Wälde explained this in 1984: ‘Investors have always tried to reduce the risk and scope of government intervention by stabilisation clauses which aim at restricting the legislative powers of government to affect or abrogate agreements. While in earlier agreements the intention was to prevent, by reference to international law obligations, the government from enacting subsequent legislation affecting the contract, more recent contractual practice refrains from explicitly tying the legislative hand of government: modern stabilisation clauses basically oblige the state enterprise to assume the risk of subsequent legislation affecting the financial equilibrium of a contract by compensating the foreign partner for corresponding financial disadvantages.’ See Thomas Wälde, ‘Third World Mineral Development: Recent Issues and Literature’ (1984) 2 JERL, 296.
- It is instructive to reflect on the defensive hackles of Roland Brown to the compelling criticism by Thomas Wälde of the UN's technical assistance activities during the 1970s and 1980s. I absolutely agree with Wälde that development success is not really to do with advice on the nuts and bolts of contracts but with policy design and policy execution. See Thomas Wälde, Review of ‘UN World Investment Report 1996’ and ‘UN International Investment Instruments: A Compendium (1998), 16 JERL, 227–235; Roland Brown, ‘Letter to the Editor’ (1999) 17 JERL, 94–96; and Thomas Wälde, ‘Note from Thomas Wälde’(1999) 17 JERL, 96–97.
- See the exploration of this concept in Michael Hager and Robert Pritchard, ‘Deal Mediation: How ADR Techniques Can Help Achieve Durable Agreements in the Global Markets’, ICSID Foreign Investment Law Journal, Vol, 14 No 1, Spring 1999.
- The turning point in collective consciousness was the ‘Earth Summit’ (the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development or UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. UNCED provided the impetus for the signing of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions in 1997. UNCED led to the creation of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 1993. The issue of energy in the context of sustainable development has recently been vigorously debated by the Commission's Ad Hoc Open-Ended Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Energy and Sustainable Development; see ‘Earth Negotiations Bulletin’ Vol 5 No 147, published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development online at www.iisd.ca/linkages/csd/enrexpertl/index.html.
- See Patricia Wouters, Editor's Foreword to the first book in the International and National Water Law and Policy series published by Kluwer Law International, Vol 3, Art 10, Internet Journal of the CEPMLP: www.cepmlp.org/journal.
- As Thomas Wälde and Alan Page described the subject in 1993: ‘An international “lex mercatoria” of energy and resources law has emerged. Commercial, financing and other contractual practices are often alike, if not identical, all around the globe; with sometimes only scant influence from the idiosyncrasies of national law. The frequent recourse to arbitration tends to enhance the international customary law aspect of energy and resources law. Contractual innovations leapfrog from country to country and over the barriers of different legal systems.’ Op cil n 1 supra, p 4.
Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law
Volume 19, 2001 - Issue 1