The legal framework of Palestinian economic under development

Abstract

This chapter is about the relationship between law and development. More specifically, it is about statutory laws and economic development. The case study will be Palestine after Oslo. Statutory laws are used, in contemporary states or proto-states, as is the case with the Palestinian Authority (hereinafter PA), to effectuate change. This paper shows that statutory laws intend to accelerate the process of socio-economic change, both through deliberate processes of legal reform and through emergency responses to crisis. The objective of achieving development through legal reform, however, does not necessarily hold. On the contrary, as shall be proven by the Palestinian experience since the establishment of the PA, and despite the economic developmental goals present in Oslo strategies and discourses, legal reform in the economic sector was paralleled by continuous deterioration and dependency of the Palestinian economy. Immediately after the signing of the Declaration of Principles, optimism about the future of the Palestinian economy prevailed. This optimism has faded into oblivion. Despite the developmental goals integrally included in the peace process, and the huge amount of money injected directly or indirectly in the PA finance, by the international donor community, the PA economy remained below what have been prior to 1993.