Equity and Ideology in the International Law of Development: The “New International Economic Order” Revisited

Abstract

This study reviews the initiative for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and its implications in the discourse of international law. The NIEO enterprise, a product of the international political economy of the 1970s, has come to a stalemate. Yet international forums have continued to articulate many of its messages. In addition to its political and economic effects, the NIEO initiative has contributed to the development of jurisprudence and legal philosophy by stimulating a rethinking and elaboration of the notion of justice in international law and by rekindling the question of what law is in international law. This study canvasses how the NIEO enterprise has unfolded itself through various international forums, particularly the United Nations General Assembly, and the major issues raised in the NIEO-related resolutions, analyses the politico-ideological implications of various NIEO-related arguments, explores the debates on the nature and status of the NIEO principles in international law, and addresses the inherent conflict between the state-centred notion of the world order and the supranational, global approach which has straddled the NIEO discussions.