Colonial Fragments: Decolonization, Concessions, and Acquired Rights

Craven, Matthew

Abstract

Concession agreements were at the heart of the battle for international law in the decolonization era. This chapter reconstructs the underpinnings of scholarly debates over the question to what extent and under which conditions Western investments in the colony could be expropriated after decolonization. In addition to resurrecting the nineteenth-century civil law notion of acquired rights in order to prevent Western investments from being the object of expropriation, Western scholars were to transform the legal architecture governing commercial activities in the colony, turning local modes of exploitation into foreign investments subject to the protection of international law. This chapter presents the idea that the reconstruction of the legal terrain of the colony is one of the central dynamics underlying the battle for international law.

Citation

Craven, M. (2019). Colonial Fragments: Decolonization, Concessions, and Acquired Rights. In J. von Bernstorff, & P. Dann (Eds.), The Battle for International Law: South-North Perspectives on the Decolonization Era (102-124). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849636.003.0005

• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 18, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 18, 2021
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 102-124
• Series Title: The History and Theory of International Law
• Book Title: The Battle for International Law: South-North Perspectives on the Decolonization Era
• ISBN: 9780198849636
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849636.003.0005
• Keywords: decolonization, concession, corporations, mining, permanent sovereignty of national resources, post-colonial theory, independence, history of international law