Gratuitous economic aid in international law

Abstract

The author's analysis of normative and doctrinal sources allows to assert that there is a recognised definition of the term “gratuitous economic aid” in the Russian doctrine of international law, which is synonymous with the term “foreign aid” used in the Western doctrine. The paper also considers the correlation of the concept “gratuitous economic aid” with other similar terms, including “official development assistance”, which is actively used in the Western doctrine. The author comes to the conclusion about the difference in the understanding of the purposes of provision of gratuitous economic aid, among which in the Western doctrine is the realisation and domination of geopolitical and economic interests of the donor states, and in the Russian doctrine humanitarian purposes and purposes related to the support and spread of cultural influence prevail. The article investigates and highlights the international legal principles of foreign aid, among which the author emphasises the principle of sovereign equality of states, the principle of efficiency, the principle of development and the principle of sustainable development. As a result of consideration of sources of international law, including soft law, the author formulates a conclusion about the change in the content of some of the principles due to the consistent implementation of the international legal policy of donor states. The author also considers the modern institutional structure of provision of foreign aid and concludes that the fragmentation of international law is interconnected with fragmentation of regulation that is present at the multilateral level and at the bilateral level there is a perception of international legal principles through their implementation in the national legislation of donor states.