Regional Economic Interaction Within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Formation of Legal Basis

Abstract

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. From the first years of its existence, this international organization has set the sustainable development of the national economies of its members as one of its goals. Such development requires an appropriate legal basis. Economic interaction in the analyzed international organization covers such spheres as trade and investment, transport, energy, agriculture and many others. The subject of this study is the legal basis for economic interaction within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The purpose of the study is to analyze the main components of the specified legal framework, the stages of the emergence and formation of the latter, as well as the problems and prospects of its development. Both general and specific scientific methods of cognition were used: formal logical, systemic, formal legal, historical legal and comparative legal methods. At the current stage, it should be noted that there is a relatively small volume of the legal basis for economic interaction within the SCO, with the prevalence of international “soft law” norms in its structure. This is primarily characteristic of the “economic constitution” of this organization, that is, for the provisions of the economic content of its three fundamental acts — the Declaration on the Establishment of SCO 2001, the Charter of SCO 2002, and the Treaty on Long-Term Good Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation between the of SCO Member States 2007. In order to ensure security and sustainable development, the participating countries of the international organization under consideration should continue to build up economic interaction, expanding and improving the regulatory framework for this. An important area of work in this direction should be, in particular, the gradual convergence (unification, harmonization) of national law in the economic sphere of the SCO member states.