ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the question anew, against the backdrop of recent developments in practice, especially at the newest of the multilateral development banks, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. it identifies the main provisions of World Bank loan agreements that are relevant to the issue of governing law. The legal provisions governing a typical World Bank loan appear in at least two main documents: a set of General Conditions and a project-specific Loan Agreement between the World Bank and the borrower. If the borrower is a member state that will re-lend some or all of the loan proceeds to a state-owned enterprise, there might also be a Project Agreement between the World Bank and that state-owned enterprise. The standard provision bearing most directly on the issue of governing law for World Bank loan agreements appears in the first sentence of section 10.01 of the General Conditions now in force.
