For some reason the Forum isn’t letting me update the post directly, so I want to highlight another core assumption which I didn’t make explicit in the original post. Once the Forum starts working again I’ll slot this into the post itself.
Core Assumption 2 - the Rule of Law holds together:
Later in the sequence, I’m planning to consider how a deterioration in the Rule of Law following the development of WGAI might impact the viability of the Clause. This could vary considerably by jurisdiction. For example, English constitutional law allows the legislature to break its own rules[1] if it wants to, giving Britain a unique ability amongst potential Developer host states to render the Clause inert simply by legislating that the Agreement was unlawful, or that the Developer’s assets are property of the Crown.
For the moment, however, I am assuming that the Rule of Law will be largely untouched by the development of WGAI. I am doing this because it is important to explore how things might play out in a best-case scenario, where all of the relevant actors decide to play by the book. The conclusions in my post can then inform a broader analysis of the viability of the Clause in scenarios where actors’ behaviour is further from the ideal.
For some reason the Forum isn’t letting me update the post directly, so I want to highlight another core assumption which I didn’t make explicit in the original post. Once the Forum starts working again I’ll slot this into the post itself.
Core Assumption 2 - the Rule of Law holds together:
Later in the sequence, I’m planning to consider how a deterioration in the Rule of Law following the development of WGAI might impact the viability of the Clause. This could vary considerably by jurisdiction. For example, English constitutional law allows the legislature to break its own rules[1] if it wants to, giving Britain a unique ability amongst potential Developer host states to render the Clause inert simply by legislating that the Agreement was unlawful, or that the Developer’s assets are property of the Crown.
For the moment, however, I am assuming that the Rule of Law will be largely untouched by the development of WGAI. I am doing this because it is important to explore how things might play out in a best-case scenario, where all of the relevant actors decide to play by the book. The conclusions in my post can then inform a broader analysis of the viability of the Clause in scenarios where actors’ behaviour is further from the ideal.
CTRL+F ‘parliament had the power to make any law except any law that bound its successors’ to see Wikipedia’s summary of this topic.