R v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ex p The World Development Movement is a judicial review case in English law in which the World Development Movement challenged the decision of Britain's Foreign Secretary to spend £234m on a development project on Malaysia's Pergau Dam.[1]
At the time, the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) was under the supervision of the Foreign Secretary and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, its primary remit being to promote UK exports to the developing world ("aid through trade"). During this period, it has been alleged that there was a connection between the granting of aid and the achievement of either foreign policy goals or British companies winning export orders.
A scandal erupted concerning the UK funding of a hydroelectric dam on the Pergau River in Malaysia, near the Thai border. Building work began in 1991 with money from the UK foreign aid budget. Concurrently, the Malaysian government bought around £1 billion worth of arms from the UK. The suggested linkage of arms deals to aid became the subject of a UK government inquiry from March 1994. In November 1994, after an application for judicial review (R v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ex p The World Development Movement) brought by the World Development Movement, the High Court held that the then-Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd had acted ultra vires (outside of his power and therefore illegally) by allocating £234 million towards the funding of the dam, on the grounds that it was not of economic or humanitarian benefit to the Malaysian people[2].