International Cooperation in Search of Energy Resources

The keynote of future rules would appear to be international co-operation in the identification of new energy sources (such as geothermal and wind power, tidal power, wave power and the thermal gradient of the sea, etc), and in the development of mature technologies, involving as far as possible the utilization of renewable sources. The necessity for co-operation between nations in respect to these and other crucial matters has been one of the main preoccupations of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency at the Board’s periodical meetings. Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 requires that parties to the Treaty facilitate to the fullest possible extent the exchange of materials for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, with due consideration for the needs of the world’s developing areas.

The question of sharing is closely linked to international monetary law and practice, as was reflected in the proposal by the United States, put to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at Nairobi in 1976, and approved by the Conference of an International Resources Bank (IRB). Producing and consuming Sates would doubtless accept the existence of a rule of international law that there is at least a duty to consult about sharing problems, and consuming countries might acknowledge an obligation interest to share equitably resources in short supply, and if necessary for the purposes of conservation to reduce consumption jointly on an equitable bases. The principle that the developing (or under-developed) countries are entitled to special economic assistance and special trade preferences is firmly established, and is reflected in the provisions of the new Part IV, added by the Protocol of 1965 to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in the current and continuing work of the UNCTAD, and as well of the IRB and its affiliates, and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in numerous subsequent instruments and reports including the Report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues (the Brandt Report) presented in 1980, and in the continuing discussions between the world of developed countries and the Third World of developing countries, that has become known as the “North-South dialogue”. The concept of development of free and open trading relationships, the extension of new preferences, subject to consultation with the countries significantly affected, as an expedient for encouraging the export of selected products from less-developed countries, is not excluded by and general rules of international law.

Article 19 of the same Charter provided that “with a view to accelerating the economic growth of developing countries and bridging the economic gap between developed and developing countries, developed countries should grant generalized preferential, non-reciprocal and non-discriminatory treatment to developing countries in those fields of international economic co-operations where it may be feasible”. The Resolution adopted by the Seventh Special Session of the United General Assembly, 1975, reaffirmed an earlier commitment of the developed countries to provide 0.7% of their gross national product (GNP) by way of development assistance to developing countries. At the UNCTAD Conference at Nairobi in 1976, Resolutions were adopted, to the effect that there should be duty-free entry into developed countries for the manufactured exports of developing countries, that the continuing multilateral trade negotiations should provide special and more favorable treatment for developing countries, and that an expert group should meet to draft a code of conduct for the transfer of technology to developing countries.

The “economic summit” in Venice in June 1987 the seven major industrial powers declared that they attached ‘particular importance to fostering stable economic progress in developing countries’, while the United Nations General Assembly at its sessions in 1986 and subsequently has had under consideration the progressive development of principles and norms, to be part of international law, relating to the New International Economic Order (NIEO). The matter of access of developing countries to the technology of developed countries has been one to which the developing countries attach cardinal importance. It firms in fact one of key doctrines of the NIEO. On one level, it is regarded as primarily referable to the obligation, legal or moral, of states to promote international co-operation in scientific and technological questions, although ultimately bearing upon the economic developments of developing countries. In Article 13 of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, 1974, it was provided that ‘every State has the right to benefit from the advances and developments in science and technology for the acceleration of its economic and social development’ and that “all States should facilitate the access of developing countries to the achievements of modern science and technology, the transfer of technology and the creation of indigenous technology for the benefit of the developing countries in forms and in accordance with procedures which are suited to their economies and their needs”. A more recent illustration is that of the provisions for the transfer of technology contained in Article 144 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982. There has continued to be pressure for a code of binding rules or principles for the transfer of technology to developing countries; however, this is not favored by some states not classified as “developing”, partly because it is considered that the complexities of trade and industry are such as to warrant guidelines rather than binding rules, partly because they are themselves to some extent importers of technology, and binding rules could discriminate against them in favor of developing countries.

The above mentioned are among the evolving principles of international economic law of general significance, and they embrace only a limited field, leaving a whole range of international economic questions not even subject to emergent doctrines.

There are numbers of growing international economic doctrines, e.g., the promotion by international action of policies conductive to balances of the economic growth, and the obligation on a state, in technical economic terms, to keep demand at an appropriate level and to graduate national expenditure in line with the growth of production, that may be yet translated into ruling principles of international law. These doctrines are to some extent reflected in Article IV of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund, as amended in 1976 stipulating that member-states of the Fund should endeavor to direct their economic and financial policies towards fostering orderly economic growth, with reasonable price stability, and that they should seek to promote stability by encouraging orderly economic and financial conditions There is much hope that all good will take place in the near future.