Introduction

The background to this study is a 1981 book, edited by Terence Daintith, that brings together a collection of papers about the legal character of petroleum licences from six western jurisdictions. Forty years later, the issue of legal character of petroleum licenses is still not particularly clear in some jurisdictions, whilst in other, new jurisdictions such as Russia, Mexico and china, the character has never been considered. Examining the legal character of petroleum licenses through a legal culture perspective, this chapter demonstrates that the different regimes can be grouped as minimum, regulatory and participatory intervention regimes. However, the legal cultural approach also demonstrates that there are quite some variations within each group, that no petroleum licensing regimes are like another, and that the different regimes are shaped by other factors than the legal, such as politics and economy.