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Transit Regime Kishor Uprety, senior counsel legal vice-presidency of the World Bank, discusses the issues of transit regime for landlocked states
In international trade, landlocked countries face many disadvantages. Their geographical locations isolate them from the sea and also limit their access to seaborne and international trade.
Although there are landlocked countries in Europe also, the landlocked countries of that region are given uninterrupted access to sea as other countries. So far as the landlocked countries of Asia and Africa are concerned, their economic development is badly affected by frequent interruption in their access to sea. The studies have shown that the coastal regions tend to be more developed that inland ones.
“The international community has recognized, and in part addressed, some of the constraints they face through a number of international legal instruments and plethora of political and normative instruments. In the course of the last century, through the constructive and concerted efforts of both landlocked and transit States, there has been considerable improvement in the situation of landlocked states,” writes Roberto Danino, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of World Bank. “The study reviews the evolution of the regime of landlocked states, with special attention to the link between international law and development. The study provides detailed historical account the legal, and to some extent the political, relations of landlocked and transit countries and examines the difficulties all these countries have faced.”
The book analyses, among others, the three major facets of public international law (customary law, treaty law and state practice) and goes into detail in the areas of both law and fact, in particular by reviewing a sample of the bilateral arrangements between landlocked and transit states.
Despite promulgation of many international laws and regulations, land locked countries are yet to have uninterrupted access to sea. Being one of the landlocked countries of the world, Nepal too has been facing one or other kinds of problems regarding the transit rights.
Many books have already been published over the years but there are only a few books that reveal the existing transit regime for landlocked states with reference to international law and development perspectives.
The book discuses the strengths and limits of existing international law related to the free access of landlocked states to and from the sea. The book analyzes whether the provisions of international law satisfy the economic demands of landlocked states, the majority of which are among the world’s poorest nations.
The book also comments on the ongoing international initiatives and developments aimed at addressing the theoretical as well as practical problems faced by landlocked states. Having specialized on the transit regime, Uprety has already published a number of books.
People Power
A couple of books have already been published about the two-weeks-long decisive people’s movement of April 2006 but only a few of them have tried to analyze the developments looking at all different perspectives. Arvinda Rimal’s book is one of them.
Although Arvinda Rimal was a well known name in communist movement of Nepal , he gave up the ideology in later phase and turned into a devout devotee of god.
Being a person with inside out knowledge of Nepalese politics as well as the role of external and internal forces, Rimal has made efforts to judge the role of political forces including King Gyanendra, Maoists, political parties along with external powers like India , USA and China in the course of political movement here.
Although his book is based on newspaper reports and rumors and some of his knowledgeable sources, this is first of its kind book which sheds light on all different aspects. Despite some subjective arguments over certain issues like the role of King Gyanendra, Rimal is capable of giving some important elements in the book. This book is interesting to read for all who are interested to know more about the 19 days of struggle.
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