ABSTRACT
The terms and provisions of the model and the actual PSCs reviewed in the preceding chapter unavoidably reflect, to a certain extent, the varying perspectives of the central government in Baghdad and the regional government in Erbil on the matter of legal control over oil and gas. Though the essential focus of this book has remained on closely examining the relevant constitutional, legislative, and contractual legal documents that bear on the issue of control, specific subsidiary themes linked to that focus have also received reference and attention, including the theme of regional minorities operating in a federal system. In part, it is this theme of regional minorities in a federal system, and the other themes of the nature and purpose of law, and claims by traditional or native peoples to natural resources on their ancestral lands, that give the issue of legal control over oil and gas in the disputed Kurdish territories a relevance, durability, or legs outlasting any possible resolution of the controversy between Baghdad and Erbil. As the charge of the present chapter concerns the current political efforts on the matter of the disputed Kurdish territories, and the complications and shortcomings faced by such, the fact of Iraq’s constitutional structure as a federal system demands that what is said be understood in the larger context of fundamental thinking about federalism. After all, these efforts aim at clarifying the nature of the federal relationship regarding certain territories disputed by the regional minority controlled KRG. Therefore, the current efforts cannot be considered without some appreciation of the matter of federalism more generally.
