Introduction

A government that declares a concession or other contract executed by a previous administration to be null and void, may be seeking the following advantages (while short term for the country, important for the politicians): (i) it has grounds to criticize the previous administration; (ii) given the time taken by litigation, it generally avoids the need to pay compensation during its own term, thus shifting the cost of its decision on to a future administration; (iii) depending on the legal system, it may be entitled to take immediate possession of the facilities; (iv) if it ...