State, courts and energy resources in India: revisiting permanent sovereignty over natural resources
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State, courts and energy resources in India: revisiting permanent sovereignty over natural resources Nidhi Srivastava
The Indian Society of International Law 2020
1 Introduction Modern economic growth is heavily dependent on energy derived from natural resources, such as coal and oil. Energy resources are not just important resources economically on account of the revenue they generate, but serve as an important tool in meeting the development goals of a nation, especially for providing clean and affordable energy to all.1 In 2012, United Nations’ then Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated, ‘‘Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability’’.2 Thus, energy, including energy resources, have economic, social and environmental significance for nations across the globe. Governance and regulation of energy has traditionally been a subject of exclusive domestic competence and regulation of States. The foundation of this competence is rooted in 1 Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims at ensuring clean and affordable energy for all by the year 2030. UN General Assembly, Transforming our world : the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Resolution adopted on 25 September 2015; A/RES/70/1. 2 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s address at the Center for Global Development event on ‘‘Delivering Sustainable Energy for All: Opportunities at Rio?20’’, in Washington, D.C. on 20 April 2012; SG/SM/14242-DEV/2941-EN/270.
Nidhi Srivastava: PhD Scholar. Nidhi Srivastava (&) Energy Studies Programme, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India e-mail: [email protected]
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sovereignty of nations over their natural resources, including energy resources. Sovereignty is integral to governance of energy, whether globally or locally, and forms the bedrock for decision-making related to energy. While there exists a range of international regulations that govern various facets of energy resources, such as trade, transit, extraction etc, there is no single international authority on energy, either in terms of law or institution.3 This can be attributed to the fact that energy is perceived to be closely linked to sovereignty and states are unwilling to relinquish their control over energy decisions.4 Over the years, there has been an evolution from territorial sovereignty to resource sovereignty. The idea of resource sovereignty emerged in a particular context and was a means to safeguard the concerns (and natural resource wealth) of newly independent countries across the world. The notion of sovereignty itself has been changing, from state-centric to people-centric, or at least people ‘inclusive’, approach. Many of these concerns and their expression were included not only in international documents, but domestic constitutions or laws too. Resource sovereignty formed the explicit or implicit basis for energy related decisions of states, whether nationalisation, bilateral agreements or investments. In this conte
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