Foreign Investment in Hydrocarbons Between the Challenges of Sustainable Economic development and the Legal Framework in Algeria
1 Fathi Zerari
Law - Law and political science - Mohamed Cherif Messaadia, Algeria
Abstract
The article 43 of the Algerian constitution, introduced by the 2016 constitutional amendment, in the section on rights and freedoms, related to freedom of investment and trade, states that: “Freedom of investment and trade is recognized and exercised within the framework of the law. The state works to improve the business climate and encourages the prosperity of enterprises without discrimination, in order to serve the national economic development, the state guarantees market control, the law protects consumer rights, and the law prohibits monopoly and unfair competition. On the international level, we note that economic operations cross the national borders, especially in our contemporary era, especially as they relate to investment activity. This is on the one hand, and the sovereignty of the state no longer implies a monopoly on the production of legal rules, because the negotiation work has become as important as the idea of sovereignty in light of the urgent need for a global investment law and a global competition law to bring together the dispersed negotiating business. The apparent disparity between the requirements of national economic growth and the internal legal system supposed to control it, especially in the field of investment in hydrocarbons, raises a question about the Algerian strategy, as a producer and exporter of hydrocarbons, to bridge this gap. In view of the necessity of aligning the national law with the imperatives of sustainable development in the economic aspect in Algeria, especially after the popular movement that Algeria witnessed since February 22, 2019, which aims to denounce corruption that has tampered with public money for several years, this paper attempts to present the features of the new Algerian vision to fill the gap between the integration of economic operations at the global level and the legal system for investment in one of the vital areas, which is hydrocarbons, in light of the constitutional framework governing freedom of investment, especially Article 43 mentioned above, and within the framework of the political intention to encourage internal and foreign investment expressed by the new President of the Republic, elected on December 12, 2019, since his first speech, and also in the context of the global context for investment in the field of hydrocarbons. There have been several national and country studies that dealt with investment in hydrocarbons, whether by legal scholars or specialized experts in the field of hydrocarbon economics, but in light of the constitutional principle enshrined in the aforementioned article 43 and the amendment of the hydrocarbons law, issued in the Official Gazette No. 79 of December 2019, as well as in the political changes after the popular movement, this subject can be revisited. This paper is based on the existence of exclusive, transferable property rights that have constitutional value and that constitute the cornerstone of the liberal system that Algeria is currently aspiring to (First Section). These rights are dealt with in the context of a decentralized system of markets, driven by competition between companies and various ways of managing private wealth, at the global level, reflected in the new hydrocarbon law that included a review of the contractual, fiscal and institutional framework (Second Section).
Keywords
"Foreign Investment", "Hydrocarbons", "Global market", "Algerian Economic Sustainable Development", "Legal Framework"
