ABSTRACT
The oil industry, as in other extraction sectors, is notorious for corruption and one method of assessing compliance with legislative provisions is to analyse how companies are awarded their contracts. During the nationalisation process, attempts were made by the Iraqi government to obtain funds from the Iraq Petroleum Company group of companies for its share of revenues since the commencement of commercial production. The implementation of the law sparked correspondence threatening and eventually leading to arbitrations against the Iraqi government. Law 35 of 1977 is the Legal System Reform Law which aimed to change “the whole structure of the old society” and outlined the “nature and goals of the July revolution 1968”. The weakness in Iraq’s economy is due to a lack of comprehensive state machinery to oversee the economic and commercial activity for the national benefit. For stability in the industry, a comprehensive law is required to provide investors and stakeholders with security.
