Contracts and constitutions: The Kurdish factor in the development of oil in Iraq

The article addresses the interplay between oil policy and constitutional law in Iraq. Its central focus is the relations that the constitution allocates to Kurdistan authorities and the federal government. Through this prism it provides an account of the prospects for the Iraqi oil industry. This includes a discrete exposition of the production sharing and service contracts that have been concluded between the international oil companies and the Kurdistan authorities and the federal government. Both federal and Kurdistan authorities use interpretations of legal texts, both contracts and constitutions, to pursue their own political and economic projects. Law in this case is politics by another means.