PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY AND PEOPLES' OWNERSHIP OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

In the dilapidated Portuguese cocoa plantation houses in Agua Ize, Sao Tome, and Principe, residents gather under a rotting roof to avoid the rain. Above their heads, offering a tantalising glimpse of a world beyond the surrounding dank disrepair, an old election campaign poster hints at the country's anticipated oil boom. "It is now!" says the propaganda of the opposition Party of Democratic Convergence, pledging "better sharing of resources." Domingas da Costa Frota Pereira, an unemployed mother of three children, looks up and laughs: "They would put the money in their own pockets," she says.1

I. INTRODUCTION

A pressing and perplexing problem throughout the world today is the inability of many countries to convert valuable natural resources into an enhanced standard of living for their citizens. Many scholars have begun to look at this problem as a "resource curse," a phenomenon denoting an inverse relationship between endowment with natural resources and economic growth.2 However, "leadership curse" more aptly describes the predicament of these countries, whereby kleptocratic rulers cause a wake of thieving frenzy, a cascade of catastrophes.