The Legal Protection Of Foreign Investment

This book brings together leading investment lawyers from more than 20 jurisdictions to produce a comparative study of foreign investment law. As such the book will provide a unique resource for investment lawyers.

Foreign investors have a privileged position under investment treaties. They enjoy strong rights, have no obligations, and can rely on a highly efficient enforcement mechanism: investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Unsurprisingly, this extraordinary status has made international investment law one of the most controversial areas of the global economic order. This book sheds new light on the topic, by showing that foreign investor rights are not the result of unpredicted arbitral interpretations, but rather the outcome of a world-making project realized by a coalition of business leaders, bankers, and their lawyers in the 1950s and 1960s. Some initiatives that these figures planned for did not emerge, such as a multilateral investment convention, but they were successful in developing a legal imagination that gradually occupied the space of international investment law. They sought not only to set up a dispute settlement mechanism but also to create a platform to ground their vision of foreign investment relations. Tracing their normative project from the post-World War II period, this book shows that the legal imagination of these business leaders, bankers, and lawyers is remarkably similar to present ISDS practice. Common to both is what they protect, such as foreign investors' legitimate expectations, as well as what they silence or make invisible. Ultimate, this book argues that our canon of imagination, of adjustment and potential reform, remains closely associated with this world-making project of the 1950s and 1960s.

Corporation law dates from the 19th century when the growth of business enterprise required a division between the private & the company sphere, making the company a legal person with its own rights, responsibilities & liabilities. The company was no longer the legal equivalent of its owner but became a separate legal entity, providing a form of legal protection for the owners, employees & the customers. The introduction of company law meant a great step forward for those engaged in big business in Europe, the U.S. & elsewhere.

The law of foreign investment is at a crossroads. In the wake of an unprecedented global financial crisis and a sharp surge of investment arbitration cases, states around the world are reflecting on the pros and cons of the current liberal investment regime and exploring new ways ahead. This book brings together leading investment lawyers from more than 20 main jurisdictions of the world to tackle the challenge of producing a first comparative study of foreign investment law. Based on the General and National Reports presented at the 'Protection of Foreign Investment' Session at the 18th International Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law (Washington DC, July 2010), the book is a unique resource for investment lawyers. Part I of the book presents a comparative overview of key aspects of foreign investment protection in the world today, including admission, investment contracts, treatment standards, tax regime and incentives, performance requirement, property and expropriation, monetary transfer and dispute settlement. Part II presents in-depth and detailed accounts of the investment laws of more than 20 jurisdictions, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Turkey, the UK and the USA. The book will be an invaluable guide to legal and business communities with an interest in the law and practice of foreign investment in the world in general and in these jurisdictions in particular.

Transnational investment involves a variety of actors (States, public and private legal entities, and natural persons) whose relationships are governed by rules and legal instruments belonging to different legal systems. This book provides a systematic study of the sources of rights and obligations in the field of transnational investment, and their coordination and interaction. It focuses primarily on the network of over 3,000 Bilateral Investment Treaties, international investment contracts, customary international law, the main multilateral treaties, national legislation, international case law and general principles of law. The book, firmly based on State practice, arbitral awards and national decisions, is indispensable to fully appraise the nature and content of the claims of private investors as well as to identify the law applicable in investment arbitration.

Public Participation and Foreign Investment Law critically discusses the different forms of public participation that can be found or envisaged in foreign investment law. It provides the first systematic treatment of public participation in foreign investment law in its main forms and from different perspectives.

The climate surrounding foreign investment law is one of controversy and change, and with implications for human rights and environmental protection, foreign investment law has gained widespread public attention and visibility. This fully updated edition of Sornarajah's classic text offers thought-provoking analysis of the law in historical, political and economic contexts, capturing leading trends and charting the possible course of future developments. It takes into account the newer types of treaties that establish a regulatory space for states and moves away from inflexible investment protection, exploring the newly created defences relating to environment, human rights, indigenous rights and other areas ending the fragmentation of the law. It looks at the current debates on legitimacy of the system and current efforts at reform. Suitable for postgraduate and undergraduate students, The International Law on Foreign Investment is essential reading for anyone specialising in the law of foreign investments.

Foreign investors often sustain injuries during violent situations, such as riots, revolutions, civil wars, and international armed conflicts. There is a great deal of uncertainty about how effective investment treaty protections are in volatile times, how they relate to other applicable legal frameworks, and how they affect the state security policy and the post-conflict transition to peace. This book explores how foreign investment is protected in times of armed conflict under the investment treaty regime. It does so by combining insights from different areas of international law, including international investment law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, the law of state responsibility, and the law of treaties. While the protections have evolved over time, with the investment treaty regime providing the strongest legal framework for protecting investors yet, there has been an apparent shift in treaty practice towards safeguarding a state's security interests. Jure Zrilic identifies and analyses the flaws in the existent normative framework, but also highlights the potential that investment treaties have for minimising the devastating effects of armed conflict. The book offers an analytical framework for assessing the investment treaty regime in times of armed conflict, distinguishing between different paradigms and different types of conflicts. Crucially, he argues that a new approach is needed to appropriately balance the competing interests of host states and investors when it comes to investment protection in armed conflicts.