Nunc Dimittis or Chief Cornerstone?: Evaluating Africa's International Norm-Development Experiment in the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project

Africa extended and strengthened its status as a maker of international law by spearheading the creation and implementation of the norm of "shared sovereignty" in international criminal adjudication and the management of petroleum resources through the Special Court for Sierra Leone that was established to prosecute the principal actors in a devastating war in West Africa in the 1990s and through the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project that created a model for effective production and utilization of natural resources for national development. This article argues that by situating itself at the forefront of the shared sovereignty experience, Africa is making significant contributions to the development of international law and, despite an initial setback, Africa's effort represents a firm foundation upon which major progress can be established. This article highlights the key challenges that orchestrated the failure of the Chad project, focusing on the inability of international financial institutions such as the World Bank Group and state actors to successfully manage complex shared sovereignty arrangements, particularly in weak states in unstable regions. The paper further identifies the specific socio-political, economic, structural, and legal mechanisms that are imperative to ensuring the successful implementation of oil revenue management or natural-resource-based shared sovereignty systems in developing nations grappling with sustainable economic development and democratization.