National Programs & Policies – Geography – UGC NET – Notes

Legal Framework

• A legal framework is a set of laws that are more specific than constitutional provisions. They lay down general obligations and principles but leave to governing authorities the task of enacting further legislation and other specific measures, as may be required.
• For each project to extract natural resources from the ground, there are rules that govern the rights and responsibilities of governments, companies, and citizens. Together these rules are called a legal framework, or legal architecture. Who is involved in making these rules and what documents they use to define them differs from country to country.
• The legal framework that governs the extractive industries rests inside a broader set of rules governing the organization of the state and economic activities. A well-designed legal architecture should provide rules for how state institutions are structured; how companies acquire and manage licenses; the fiscal terms governing payments between companies and the state; environmental management; relationships between extractive projects and neighboring communities; the behavior of public officials active in the sector; public information disclosure and accountability; and how the government will manage natural resource revenues. When companies begin to engage in a country, they must check that they are in compliance, or following, all of the rules in the legal framework of a country.
• Legal frameworks comprise a set of documents that include the constitution, legislation, regulations, and contracts. How these documents relate to one another, which has more force than the other, is often referred to as a legal hierarchy, as illustrated in the pyramid below.

• Moving from the bottom of the pyramid to the top, each instrument becomes increasingly detailed or specific. Each instrument on the pyramid should be consistent with the instruments below it. In a properly ordered legal hierarchy, a country would not agree to terms in a contract that conflict with rules established in regulation, legislation or the constitution.
• Also, laws and policy are supposed to have more authority than a contract-take precedence, in legal speak. In practice, however, contracts can also be written to explicitly override the laws and regulations.
• In 1952, the Government of India and UNDP entered into a basic agreement to govern UNDP’s assistance to the Special Agreement on the Technical Assistance between UN organizations and the Government of India. In 1959, the Agreement between the UN Special Fund and the Government concerning assistance from the Special Fund was signed.
• The Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India is the designated nodal department which approves and signs the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) with UNDP. The programme is nationally executed and implemented by a range of partners including government ministries, state governments, district authorities, civil society organizations, NGOs and other UN agencies.

National Environment Policy

• National Environment Policy 2006 is a response to India’s national commitment to a clean environment, mandated in the Constitution in Articles 48 A and 51 A (g), (DPSP) strengthened by judicial interpretation of Article 21.
• It is recognized that the maintenance of the Healthy environment is not the responsibility of the state alone. It is the responsibility of every Citizen and thus a spirit of partnership is to be realized through the environment Management of the country.
• There are different policies for forests, water and environmental pollution. But the experience in implementing these policies over the years has brought out the need for a comprehensive policy approach to the management of the environment in the country. Therefore, a new national environment policy was announced in 2006.