The Effectiveness of Legislative Reforms in Economic Infrastructure Projects: A Study in Kuwaiti Law

Prof. Nasser Khalil Jalal Al Assaf
Professor of Civil Law- School of Law – University of Bahrain

Abstract:

The Kuwaiti legislator gave special importance to the economic legislative reforms, especially in the field of infrastructure projects. He stressed this importance through the enactment of legislation aimed at activating the role of the private sector to improve the status of strategic projects on the one hand and alleviating the burdens of the state budget on the other. In this regard, the legislator issued Law No. (7) of (2008) regulating construction, operation, conversion and similar regulations and amending certain provisions of Decree Law No. (105) of (1980) regarding the system of state property.
This was followed by the issuance of Law No. (37) of (2010) on the organization of privatization programs and processes. The legislative process has not stopped in the framework of economic legislative reforms at this point, Law No. (116) of (2014) concerning public-private partnership was issued, which has repealed Law No. (7) of (2008) of regulating construction, operation, conversion and similar regulations.
The accelerated pace of the Kuwaiti legislator in the issuance of economic legislation in the infrastructure sector, followed by repealing and amending existing laws and issuing new ones governing this sector prompted us to consider the effectiveness of these economic legislative reforms through two sections.
The first section focused on the definition of infrastructure contracts and the effectiveness of the Kuwaiti legislation in addressing the stages of the contract. The second section examined the impact of the legislative reforms on the description of the infrastructure contracts and its impact on the relationship with the investor.
In the conclusion, this research reached a number of conclusions and proposals that reinforce the tendency toward legislative and economic reforms in infrastructure projects in Kuwaiti law.

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