This IIA Issues Note tracks progress on IIA reform, finding that it is well underway and involves countries at all levels of development and from all regions. It highlights that almost all the treaties concluded in 2018 contain a large number of reform features, and the core focus of reform action is in relation to ISDS.
SustainableFDI.org is UNCTAD’s dedicated site on promotion and facilitation of investment for sustainable development, in line with the 2030 Agenda and all the SDGs. It provides content related to investment in affordable and clean energy and climate action, as well as in each of the SDGs.
This IIA Issues Note provides an overview of known treaty-based ISDS cases initiated in the past year and overall ISDS case outcomes. It indicates that, as the surge in ISDS cases continues, the total ISDS case count may reach 1,000 by the end of 2019.
UNCTAD gave its Investment Policy Hub a facelift to make it more user-friendly.
This book considers the application of good faith by arbitral tribunals and parties in international investment disputes, encompassing both procedural and substantive aspects of good faith.
This book tests claims about investment arbitration and fiscal costs against data so that policy reforms can be informed by scientific evidence.
The 2017 edition of the annual publication provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the international investment law and policy field, focusing on trends and issues in FDI, investment treaty practice and investor–state arbitration.
This report exposes 38 cases of mining companies that have been filing dozens of multi-million dollar claims against Latin American countries before investment arbitration tribunals, demanding compensation for court decisions, public policies and other government measures that they claim reduce the value of their investments.
This report concludes that ISDS cases launched by Canadian investors outside North America follow a pattern of disproportionately targeting environmental policy in developing nations and that environmental policy is the fastest growing trigger for such cases.
ISDS continues to be controversial, spurring debate in the investment and development community and among the public at large.
Environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs), environmental and social management plans (ESMPs), closure and rehabilitation plans, and potential resettlement action plans (RAPs) are essential tools for any process related to the granting of environmental permits or mining authorizations.
ISDS continues to be controversial, spurring debate in the investment and development community and the public at large. States are responding to challenges and concerns surrounding ISDS through different avenues.
With changes to the international investment law landscape—and Asian countries now actively developing their network of BITs and FTAs—this volume studies issues relating to Asian perspectives on international investment law and forecasts the future of Asian contributions to its science and practice.
The book examines the underlying reasons for the exclusion of home states from ISDS and explores the role that they could play in the dispute process. It also analyzes whether current reforms and proposed changes for the international investment law regime will improve it or reduce the exposure of states to investment claims.
In order to accommodate inward and outward investment, China’s participation in the international investment regime has underpinned its efforts to join multilateral investment-related legal instruments and conclude IIAs.
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Currently in beta version, the database provides a comprehensive, regularly updated and networked overview of all known investment arbitration cases. It offers researchers and policy-makers immediate access to an initial selection of carefully coded variables together with a series of visualizations of raw and analyzed data from more than 1,000 cases.
In light of increasing conflicts over access to and use of natural resources—and of their impact on political, social and environmental aspects—contributors to this volume analyze the extent to which international economic law can support the sustainable exploitation, management and distribution of natural resources.
This book analyzes the investment chapter of a new type of trade agreement between Canada and the European Union to help readers gain a better understanding of this mega-regional deal, which includes foreign investment protection.
This book critically analyzes how arbitration cases, institutional rules and emerging codes of conduct in the international arbitration sector have dealt with a series of key arbitrator duties to date. In addition, it offers a range of feasible and well-grounded proposals regarding investment arbitrators’ duties in the future.
This book looks at the participation of the EU in international dispute settlement. It aims to provide the reader with an appraisal of the most problematic aspects connected with the participation of a sui generis legal subject such as the EU to international dispute settlement mechanisms in a state-centric international law.
Intra-EU investor–state arbitration has been a prominent topic in domestic and international policy debates. Recent developments related to the Achmea case put a spotlight on the future of intra-EU disputes based on BITs and the Energy Charter Treaty.
A central development in international law is the intensified juridification of international relations by a growing number of international courts. With this in mind, this book discusses how international judicial authority is established and managed in key fields of international economic law: trade law, investor–state arbitration and international commercial arbitration.
Twenty-first-century trade agreements are increasingly a source of international law on investment and competition.
This book is about the forces that are reshaping the international law on foreign investment today. It begins by explaining the liberal origins of contemporary investment treaties before addressing a current backlash against these treaties and the device of investment arbitration.
The OECD’s guidance on combatting tax avoidance strategies associated with Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS) methods is complex and accompanied by a wealth of literature.
This book examines one of the most dynamic areas of international law: the interaction between international investment law and environmental law and policy. It takes a thematic approach, analyzing key issues in the environment–investment nexus, such as freshwater resources, climate, biodiversity, biotechnology and sustainable development.
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The Commentary on the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) provides an article-by-article textual analysis of the international agreement, which outlines a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the energy sector.
This report uses a first-of-its kind analytical framework that tracks the performance of 117 countries over 45 years to understand which policies have succeeded or failed.
This report provides clarity on key characteristics and challenges of local content policies. It does not attempt to propose one definition of local content.
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This book analyzes the tension between the host state’s commitment to providing regulatory stability for foreign investors and its commitments to its citizens with regard to environmental protection and social welfare.
This work seeks to address the need for a detailed study that investigates and analyzes the sources, the content, the characteristics and the evolution of the law of state responsibility for breaches of investment contracts.
This volume examines China’s role in the field of international governance and the rule of law under the Belt and Road Initiative from a holistic perspective.
Investment arbitration is heavily relied upon around the globe and has to cope with the demands of increasingly complex proceedings. At the same time, it has come under close public scrutiny in the midst of heated political debate.
This book explains the underlying debate and provides an in-depth commentary on the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor–State Arbitration, paragraph by paragraph.
Have the processes of elaboration and implementation of foreign investors’ responsibilities by intergovernmental organizations reached the realm of legality?
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The book examines the merits and pitfalls of arbitral tribunals’ use of the concepts of proportionality and reasonableness to review the compatibility of a state’s regulatory actions with its obligations under international investment law.
The guidance focuses on mining sector local content policies—a suite of policies aimed at leveraging mining investment to, for example, increase local employment, boost mining companies’ local purchases and foster entrepreneurs in non-mining sectors.
The 2018 World Investment Report presents foreign direct investment (FDI) trends and prospects at global, regional and national levels; analyzes the latest developments in national policy measures on investment;
UNCTAD’s annual review of investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) contains an overview of cases initiated pursuant to international investment agreements (IIAs), overall case outcomes and an in-depth analysis of decisions.
Why did governments create a special legal regime in which foreign investors can bring cases directly against states?
The book offers a comprehensive introduction to international investment law and dispute settlement.
The note highlights that the number of new IIAs concluded in 2017 was the lowest since 1983, and that, for the first time, the number of effective treaty terminations outpaced the number of new IIAs.
International law has historically regulated foreign trade and foreign investment differently, leading to variances in treaty form, institutional culture and dispute settlement. However, economic, legal and sociological factors are now pushing the two systems together.
The ICCA-Queen Mary Third Party Funding Taskforce, comprised of representatives drawn from among all relevant stakeholders and interested members of ICCA
Architects of the investment treaty regime, as well as many current proponents, have suggested that the treaties also allow developing countries to de-politicize investor–state disputes, shielding commercial disputes from broader political and diplomatic considerations with developed states.