The Resource Curse: A Legal Perspective (Report‪)‬

This article analyzes the different dimensions of the so-called resource curse hypothesis from the perspective of international and domestic law. The analysis is structured as a commentary of the views of the UK-based philosopher Leif Wenar and the Swiss philosopher Peter Schaber on this issue. The article concludes that, under current legal arrangements, states remain the main guarantors of the public good of the people living under their sovereignty. Thus, for better or worse as long as, from a political or an ethical standpoint, peoples are sovereign, they will also continue to assume the main responsibility for their own development even when their house is not in order. KEYWORDS: resource curse, resource ownership, international law, domestic law, Ogoni, Equatorial Guinea. The superfluous of the rich should serve for the necessity of the poor; yet, quite to the contrary, the necessity of the poor serves for the superfluous of the rich.--Jean Domat