Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (1975–1992)

This article uses Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante’s career at the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) as a prism for examining the place of Third World Approaches to International Law within mainstream international organizations (IO) law. By focusing on his role as chief legal adviser, director and highest-ranking legal civil servant at the UNCTC during the heydays of the New International Economic Order (NIEO), it uncovers a less-examined international institution and the dilemmas faced by the Third World international legal civil servant. By examining Asante’s intellectual history and publications during the operational years of the UNCTC, it identifies three main under-explored typologies of Third World approaches to IO law. It argues that the low visibility of Third World approaches within mainstream IO law is closely linked to the failures of the NIEO movement, the abolition of the UNCTC, which symbolized the non-realization of aspirations to codify the principles of the NIEO through IOs, and minimal engagement by IO law scholars with Third World problems. This article argues that, even though the UNCTC ceased to exist in 1992, it created a lasting legacy through its advisory services, which forms part of IO law history.