Legitimacy, Accountability, and Partnership: A Model for Advocacy on Third World Environmental Issues

Abstract

t Assistant Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University; former Senior Attorney and Co-Director of International Programs, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C. This work was supported by a research grant from the Frances Lewis Law Center of Washington and Lee University and through the author's appointment as a scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Study Center in Bellagio, Italy. The author thanks Frederic L. Kirgis, Jr., and Judith A. McMorrow for their comments on previous drafts and gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Eric L. Christensen, Jon C. Cooper, Lalanath de Silva, Kelly L. Faglioni, and Glenn T. Prickett. 1. One of the World Bank's principal functions is promote economic development, increase productivity and thus raise standards of living in the less-developed areas of the world . . . in particular by providing finance to meet their important developmental requirements .... Articles of Agreement of the International Development Association, Jan. 26, 1960, art. I, I 1 U.S.T. 2284, 2285-86, T.I.A.S. No. 4607, at 2-3, 439 U.N.T.S. 249, 252 [hereinafter IDA Articles of Agreement]. The World Bank Group comprises three windows, each of which technically is a separate international organization: the International Development Association, see id.; the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, see Articles of Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Dec. 27, 1945, 60 Stat. 1440, T.I.A.S. No. 1502, 2 U.N.T.S. 134, amended Dec. 16, 1965, 16 U.S.T. 1942, T.I.A.S. No. 5929 [hereinafter IBRD Articles of Agreement]; and the International Finance Corporation, see Articles of Agreement of the International Finance Corporation, May 25, 1955, 7 U.S.T. 2197, T.I.A.S. No. 3620, 264 U.N.T.S. 117. As of early 1991, 155 countries were members of the Bank. The principal mechanism by which the Bank