"Preface" [2017] ELECD 1037; in Tan, Celine; Faundez, Julio (eds), "Natural Resources and Sustainable Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) ix

Book Title: Natural Resources and Sustainable Development

Editor(s): Tan, Celine; Faundez, Julio

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478378

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Preface
This book developed from discussions on International Law, Natural
Resources and Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick1 as
well as from contributions to a special edition of the International
Journal of Law in Context.2 The objective of these discussions and
subsequent journal collection was to consider national and international
approaches to the regulation of natural resources in developing countries
and the impact of such approaches on sustainable development and on
the evolution of international law.
Both initiatives brought together academics, policymakers and cam-
paigners to examine and assess the legal and regulatory regimes pertain-
ing to the governance of natural resources in developing countries. The
centrality of natural resources to global economic growth has meant that
the ownership and control over natural resources have been at the
forefront of legal, territorial and political disputes between states, par-
ticularly between the north and south. At the same time, the links
between natural resource depletion and environmental degradation,
impoverishment and human rights violations mean that the governance
and management of natural resources remains a critical arena for local
and transnational contestation.
All the chapters in this collection highlight the fact that the inter-
national governance and management of natural resources has become an
important area for international research, law and policymaking in the
coming years as the contestation and conflict over their use become more
acute. It is critical that these issues be addressed in a comprehensive and
holistic manner with prominence given to voices from the south, where
...