Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Technopolitics of a concessionary contract : how international law was transformed by its encounter with Anglo-Iranian oil

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Shafiee, Katayoun (2018) Technopolitics of a concessionary contract : how international law was transformed by its encounter with Anglo-Iranian oil. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 50 (4). pp. 627-648. doi:10.1017/S0020743818000909 ISSN 1471-6380.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-techno-politics-concession-law-Anglo-Iranian-oil-Shafiee-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (569Kb) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743818000909

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This article examines the transformative work of Anglo-Iranian oil in international law helping to constitute a peculiar distinct ion between civilized/uncivilized and developed/developing. The Middle East was a central site for political intervention through international law and the new Bretton Woods Institutions of the mid - 20th century that sought to redefine the powers of former colonies as new states in the process of decolonization. Historical scholarship has not addressed the infrastructure of this socio-legal relationship as a political project. Political histories of Iran in the Mosaddegh period discuss the legal aspects of the oil nationalization crisis in terms of their impact on the 1953 coup d’état and domestic political events in Tehran. Histories of nation-states and sovereignty ignore the procedural work of laws and contracts concerning natural resources in constructing the newly emergent post-colonial states. Many studies exist of how petroleum laws and contracts impacted Iran’s oil industry, for example, but not in the other direction to think about the transformative work of oil in law. International legal studies refer to the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute in discussing the need for an expanded scope of laws to deal with economic development contracts because after World War II, international law was unfit to deal with the emergence of newly sovereign post-colonial states. These new states were the sole recipients of this type of economic development contract, known as a concession in the colonial period. The eventual legitimization of “raw material sovereignty ” in the 1960s marked a remarkable transfer of legal power that challenge d the international political and economic order. The origins of international relations between the so-called Global North and South, or the Third World, were constructed, in part, out of the need to maintain these contractual agreements between multinational corporations and new states with natural resources such as oil.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
K Law [Moys] > KT Asia and Pacific
Divisions: Faculty of Arts > History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Íran -- Political aspects , Íran -- History -- 20th century, Petroleum -- Íran, International law, Natural resources - Íran
Journal or Publication Title: International Journal of Middle East Studies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISSN: 1471-6380
Official Date: 28 November 2018
Dates:
DateEvent
28 November 2018Available
24 May 2017Accepted
Volume: 50
Number: 4
Page Range: pp. 627-648
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743818000909
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Copyright Holders: Cambridge University Press
Date of first compliant deposit: 24 October 2017
Date of first compliant Open Access: 21 June 2018

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us