The main aim of this book is to assess the importance of international rules for foreign direct investment and the major challenges to international harmonization of those rules. Particular attention is paid to the most controversial and contentious issues with the view of appraising the prospects for establishing global rules. The book is divided into three parts; the first part includes papers assessing the role of national and international legislation with further distinction being made between bilateral, regional and multilateral legal frameworks. The second part addresses regulatory issues of technology transfer, labor, environment, subsidies and investment incentives, national security, public services and sovereign wealth funds. The final part looks at the experience of some international fora in addressing these issues and at some theoretical and conceptual problems of rule harmonization. The papers have been written by legal and economic scholars from leading universities.
This new edition of Sornarajah's book, available for the first time in paperback, surveys the international law developed to protect foreign investment by multinational corporations. The area has always been one of controversy due to the different political and economic conflicts that exist in the field. The book assesses the role of multinational corporations in making foreign investments, and considers the ways in which misconduct on the part of such corporations in host states could be controlled. Sornarajah focuses on the protection of foreign investment and the problems associated with such protection. He explores treaty-based methods, and examines several bilateral and regional investment treaties. The failure to agree on a multilateral treaty system and the inability to incorporate a discipline on investment within the WTO are also considered. He takes account not only of the law, but also of the relevant literature in economics, political science and other associated disciplines.
International Law and Foreign Direct Investment provides an overview of the law of foreign direct investments, incorporating a thorough exposition of the legal principles that are likely to affect a commercial investment in a foreign country. It analyzes the manner in which the principles have been interpreted and applied by international courts, domestic courts, and arbitral tribunals. The book should be of interest to both practitioners and scholarly lawyers.
Foreign investments in the energy sector raise formidable legal questions, often requiring a delicate balance between private and public interests of the various stakeholders. Foreign Investment in the Energy Sector: Balancing Private and Public Interests opens with a discussion of the legal protection of foreign investment in the main segments of the energy sector (namely oil, gas, mining and hydroelectric industry), both in substantive and procedural terms. This second part of the book focuses on the Energy Charter Treaty, by far the most important international legal instrument in the energy sector, and its future after the decision of the Russian Federation not to ratify it. In its third part, the book examines four critical areas that are often negatively concerned by economic activities by multinational in the energy sector, namely compliance with safety and labour standards, protection of the environment, respect of indigenous peoples rights, and protection of public health. Foreign Investment in the Energy Sector: Balancing Private and Public Interests, a comprehensive collection of essays from experts and practitioners, offers an important new resource to the field.
There are three legal frameworks applicable to international investments: the laws of the host state and the investor's country, the contract between the host state and the investor, and the rules of international investment law. This book assesses how these three bodies of law interact in investment agreements and dispute arbitration.
Regulation of foreign investment is one of the most topical and controversial subjects in EU law and international investment law. This book examines the legal foundations upon which EU investment policy is based, addressing the legal, practical, and political concerns created by the establishment of a common investment policy.
Analyses bilateral treaties and regional agreements on foreign investments, focussing particularly on measures taken in the context of economic crises.
Sustainable Development in EU Foreign Investment Law offers a clear and convincing assessment of how the EU contributes to the ongoing debate on sustainable development integration in international investment agreements.