Dr Giedre Jokubauskaite has guest-edited a special Symposium on the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework for Volume 32 Issue 3 (September 2019) of the Leiden Journal of International Law.
Abstract
“In October 2018 the World Bank (the Bank) launched an upgraded version of its safeguard policies, the Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). For the Bank this is one of the largest internal reforms in decades. In the field of development co-operation at large, consultations over the ESF triggered a major debate about how to ensure the sustainability and fairness of development operations, whilst also respecting the national autonomy of the borrowing states. It goes without saying that many of the changes introduced by this reform, as well as the process through which the ESF was adopted, have direct relevance to public international law particularly in the areas of environmental, labour, and human rights’ protection. However, given the recent nature of these developments, thus far there has been limited academic engagement with this topic, especially from a legal perspective. Therefore, building on the discussions that first took place among the authors at the University of Durham (UK) in September 2017, the articles in this Symposium highlight the impacts that the ESF is likely to have on the functioning of international legal framework. They also discuss what this reform can tell us about the current state of public international law and global governance more generally.” (G. Jokubauskaite, “Introduction: The World Bank Environmental and Social Framework in a wider realm of public international law” (2019) 32 LJIL 457).