Mining Law in the Context of Development : An Overview

Prevailing patterns of mining policy, as well as of mining legislation, regulation and contractual arrangements, are undergoing intense scrutiny faced with society's changing values and expectations on the contribution of mining to sustainable development. In reflecting on future directions, this chapter provides an overview of mining law vis-à-vis different visions of development. The focus is on trends in developing countries. It will look at predominant trends towards the use of contractual arrangements in the context of the developmental state in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the shift to competitive fiscal and legal frameworks in the context of market policies in the 1990s. It will then preliminarily address some of the facts, debates and discerning trends of law and policy in the mining sector in the current context