In Sanctions Regimes of Multilateral Development Banks: What Process is Due, Jelena Madir examines the type of due process rights and the level of transparency that should characterise sanctions regimes of multilateral development banks.

The multilateral development banks cumulatively channel billions of dollars annually in development assistance to borrower countries. This finance is usually spent through processes that incorporate the public procurement regulations of the banks and it is often a condition of this finance that the funds must be spent using the procurement regulations of the lender institution. This book examines the issues and challenges raised by procurement regulation in the multilateral development banks. The book examines the history of procurement regulation in the banks; the tripartite relationship created between the banks, borrowers and contractors in funded procurements; the procurement documents and procurement cycle; as well as how the banks ensure competition and value for money in funded procurements. The book also examines the banks' approach to sustainability concerns in public procurement such as environmental, social or industrial concerns; as well as how the banks address the issue of corruption and fraud in funded contracts. Another issue that is addressed by this book is how the banks have implemented the aid effectiveness agenda. It will be seen that the development banks have undertaken steps to harmonise their policies and practices, increased borrower procurement capacity, taken steps to reduce the tying of aid, and play an important role in the reform of borrower procurement systems, all in an effort to improve the effectiveness of development finance. The book also considers the contractual and other remedies that are available to parties that may be aggrieved as a result of a funded procurement. The book analyses, compares and contrasts the legal, practical and institutional approaches to procurement regulation in the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which began operations in 2016 and now has an approved membership of eighty-four worldwide, has quickly become perhaps one of the world’s most promising agents of global economic development. With its firm commitments to the twenty-first century imperatives of cost-effectiveness, zero tolerance for corruption and active promotion of environmental sustainability, its clearly stated aims and requirements echo the goal of reform that other multilateral institutions are undertaking. This book is among the first to offer an incisive introduction to the AIIB’s law and governance, which are now essentially in place. From a perspective of Chinese multilateralism, which parts ways from the dominant twentieth-century Bretton Woods arrangements, the author provides in great depth the details of such elements of the Bank’s Articles of Agreement as the following: – non-resident board system; – procurement; – role of trust funds; – state-owned enterprises as private entities; – immunity; – dispute settlement; – accountability for involuntary resettlement and human rights violations; and – policy on prohibited practices. Throughout, the author provides deeply informed comparisons with such existing multilateral development banks as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as with the World Trade Organization. He shows how the AIIB not only emulates but also innovates while continuing to collaborate closely with these institutions. He suggests what should be done to optimize governance, standards and operations of the AIIB together with these peer institutions in a mutually emulating manner. Lawyers and policymakers involved in international economic law and related fields will welcome this nuanced and in-depth description and analysis of the AIIB. Its concomitant analysis of political economy and global governance issues will be of interest to bankers, businesses, government officials and others looking for an overall understanding of multilateral development banking and China’s approach toward global governance in particular.

This book focuses on the World Bank’s sanctions system, which is an innovative instrument of global governance implemented by the leading multilateral development bank in order to impose penalties on legal entities and individuals that are involved in Bank-financed projects. Although similar regimes have also been implemented by other regional multilateral development banks, the World Bank’s legal framework is currently the most comprehensive one. The book offers a rich and detailed analysis of the sanctions system, presenting an in-depth examination of all the phases of its procedure with a special focus on key aspects such as the criteria for assigning liability to legal entities and corporate groups, as well as the World Bank’s jurisdictional reach over non-contractors. The book also explores the compatibility between the legal framework implemented by the Bank and the rule of law, the role of precedents, and the level of due process. It highlights the fact that the sanctions system is currently characterized by a lack of legal guarantees, and that there are compelling reasons for supporting the argument that due process safeguards should be applied to it in their entirety. To that end, the book conducts a thorough analysis of specific procedural aspects such as the right to a hearing, the right to evidence disclosure, the time limit regime, the standard of proof and shift of the burden of proof, the evidential value of a party’s silence, and the consistency and predictability of the World Bank’s sentencing practice. The study is conducted on the basis of a detailed and painstaking examination of the most relevant decisions taken by the Sanctions Board, providing the first-ever commentary on the World Bank’s case law.

In recovering assets that are or that represent the proceeds, objects, or instrumentalities of grand corruption, do states violate the human rights of politically exposed persons, their relatives, or their associates? Radha Ivory asks whether cooperative efforts to confiscate illicit wealth are compatible with rights to property in public international law. She explores the tensions between the goals of controlling high-level, high-value corruption and ensuring equal enjoyment of civil and political rights. Through the jurisprudence of regional human rights tribunals and the literature on confiscation and international cooperation, Ivory shows how asset recovery is a human rights issue and how principles of legality and proportionality have mediated competing interests in analogous matters. In cases of asset recovery, she predicts that property rights will likewise enable questions of individual entitlement to be considered in the context of collective concerns with good governance, global economic inequality, and the suppression of transnational crime.

The New Zealand Yearbook of International Law is an annual, internationally refereed publication intended to stand as a reference point for legal materials and critical commentary on issues of international law. The Yearbook also serves as a valuable tool in the determination of trends, state practice and policies in the development of international law in New Zealand, the Pacific region, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica and to generate scholarship in those fields. In this regard the Yearbook contains an annual ‘Year-in-Review’ of developments in international law of particular interest to New Zealand as well as a dedicated section on the South Pacific. This Yearbook covers the period 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018.

As in all periods of swift economic development and political upheaval, our era of globalization has brought corruption and conflicts of interest into the spotlight. This comprehensive study highlights the difficulties of devising global legislative an