Iraqi Oil and Revenues from Its Sale: A Review of How Existing Security Council Resolutions Affected the Past and May Shape the Future

The newly proposed Iraqi oil and gas legislation is currently making its way through Iraq's political process. The specific content of that legislation may be criticized for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless, while early Security Council resolutions addressing Iraq's oil and gas, and revenues from its sale, demonstrated extensive supervision over such by the international community beginning in the 1990s, more recent resolutions assign Iraq the kind of control that suggests its peoples are entitled to manage those resources and monies as they see fit. At the same time, the international community cannot ignore the importance of oil and gas to the economic well-being of Iraq, and the link between economic health and the survival of that country's nascent democracy. As a consequence, despite the fact that Security Council resolutions have seen fit to permit Iraqi authorities to resume autonomous control over that nation's hydrocarbons and the revenues produced by the sale of such, serious consideration should be given to the adoption of a new resolution, extending beyond the current 31 December 2007 date Iraq's protection against legal claims from existing and potential creditors.