DEVELOPING COUNTRY

developing country.Int’l law. A country that is not as economically or politically advanced as

the  main  industrial  powers.  •  Developing  countries  are  located  mostly  in  Africa,  Asia,  Eastern

Europe,  the  Middle  East,  and  Latin  and  South  America.  —  Also  termed  developing  state;

underdeveloped country; less-developed country; Third World country.

“Pertinent  terminology  has  undergone  extensive  changes  in  the  past  40  years.  At  the  very

start, before the category found its way into official texts, economic and political writings referred

mainly to ‘poor’ or ‘backward’ countries. In  the late 1940s, the term ‘underdeveloped countries’

came into common usage in economic literature and in the jargon of international organizations. It

was  replaced  in  the  1950s  by  the  term  ‘less  developed  countries,’  for  which  the  current

‘developing countries’  was eventually substituted. These  terms are essentially interchangeable as

they  refer  to  the  same  group  and  kind  of  countries.  However,  variations  in  the  use  of  the  term

reflect significant changes in the perception of the central issue, namely, economic development,

as well as responses to  justified sensitivities  on the  part of the  countries principally concerned.”

A.A. Fatouros, “Developing States,” in 1 Encyclopedia of Public International Law 1017 (1992). [Blacks Law 8th]