In this concise history of expropriation of land for the common good in Europe and North America from medieval times to 1800, Susan Reynolds contextualizes the history of an important legal doctrine regarding the relationship between government and the in
Historically, Israel's Supreme Court has failed to limit the state's powers of expropriation and to protect private property. This book argues that the Court's land expropriation jurisprudence can only be understood against the political, cultural and institutional context in which it was shaped. Security and economic pressures, the precarious status of the Court in the early years, the pervading ethos of collectivism, the cultural symbolism of public land ownership and the perceived strategic and demographic risks posed by the Israeli Arab population - all contributed to the creation of a harsh and arguably undemocratic land expropriation legal philosophy. This philosophy, the book argues, was applied by the Supreme Court to Arabs and Jews alike from the creation of the state in 1948 and until the 1980s. The book concludes with an analysis of the constitutional change of 1992 and its impact on the legal treatment of property rights under Israeli law.
Many investment arbitration cases involve a challenge to a regulatory measure of a host state on the basis of indirect expropriation. The practice of arbitral tribunals is diverse and unsettled. In recent years States have been trying to clarify the relationship between regulatory freedom (also known as 'police powers') and indirect expropriation by revising provisions on indirect expropriation in their investment treaties. This book provides the first focused analysis of indirect expropriation and regulatory freedom, drawing on a broad range of the jurisprudence of investment tribunals. The nature of regulatory freedom in international law has been explained on the bases of jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), dispute resolution bodies of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), European Court of Human Rights. While showing how cases involving standoff between regulatory freedom and indirect expropriation can be resolved in practice, the book goes on to present a conceptual framework for interpreting the nuances of this relationship. The book provides a detailed responses to the following complex questions: • To what extent do states retain regulatory freedom after entering into investment treaties? • What is the scope of regulatory freedom in general public international law? • What are the elements of regulatory freedom and standard of review? • How to draw a dividing line between regulatory freedom and indirect expropriation? • Whether the sole effects doctrine or the police powers is the appropriate method for distinguishing between regulatory freedom and indirect expropriation? While addressing these questions, the author analyses different theoretical approaches that reflect upon the relationship between regulatory freedom and indirect expropriation and how far they assist in understanding these potentially overlapping concepts; their relationship with each other; and the method for distinguishing between them. Given the dense network of around three thousand bilateral investment treaties (BITs) that impose an obligation to protect foreign investments in a State, this book will help practitioners identify, through analysis of cases from diverse fields, how a situation may be categorized either as regulatory freedom or as indirect expropriation. The analysis will also be of value to government officials and lawyers involved in negotiating and re-negotiating investment treaties, and to arbitrators who have to decide these issues. Scholars will welcome the book's keen insight into the contentious relationship between a customary international law norm and a treaty norm.
This book outlines the protection standards typically contained in international investment agreements as they are actually applied and interpreted by investment tribunals. It thus provides a basis for analysis, criticism, and stocktaking of the existing system of investment arbitration. It covers all main protection standards, such as expropriation, fair and equitable treatment, full protection and security, the non-discrimination standards of national treatment and MFN, the prohibition of unreasonable and discriminatory measures, umbrella clauses and transfer guarantees. These standards are covered in separate chapters providing an overview of textual variations, explaining the origin of the standards and analysing the main conceptual issues as developed by investment tribunals. Relevant cases with quotations that illustrate how tribunals have relied upon the standards are presented in depth. An extensive bibliography guides the reader to more specific aspects of each investment standard permitting the book's use as a commentary of the main investment protection standards.
In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of investors seeking compensation from states perceived to have expropriated their projects. Part of the Oxford International Arbitration Series, this book provides a comprehensive guide to expropriation and how it is applied in practice. The book begins by introducing the law of expropriation from a historical standpoint, charting some of the key decisions in the history of expropriation and how it has evolved to become an accepted principle in international law today. It then proceeds to offer a detailed examination of existing case law, from which common substantive principles of the international law on expropriation are drawn out. Relevant international cases from the ICJ, ECHR, Iran-US Tribunal, ICSID, NAFTA, and the ECT are considered to complement the focus on investment treaty arbitration. The book also examines the interplay between expropriation and other standards of treaty protection, namely fair and equitable treatment. The final chapters comment on current trends and assess the relevance of expropriation in the present day.
Arbitration of international investment disputes is one of the fastest growing areas of international dispute resolution. This book surveys the substantive principles which are being applied to disputes by international investment tribunals.
This thesis provides a new approach to the Ethiopian Land Law debate. The basic argument made in this thesis is that even if the Ethiopian Constitution provides and guarantees common ownership of land (together with the state) to the people, this right has not been fully realized whether in terms of land accessibility, enjoyability, and payment of fair compensation in the event of expropriation. Expropriation is an inherent power of the state to acquire land for public purpose activities. It is an important development tool in a country such as Ethiopia where expropriation remains the only method to acquire land. Furthermore, the two preconditions of payment of fair compensation and existence of public purpose justifications are not strictly followed in Ethiopia. The state remains the sole beneficiary of the process by capturing the full profit of land value, while paying inadequate compensation to those who cede their land by expropriation. Secondly, the broader public purpose power of the state in expropriating the land for unlimited activities puts the property owners under imminent risk of expropriation.
International investment law is a subject of growing importance and complexity. Anyone interested in international investment law will appreciate the comprehensive, thoughtful and detailed exploration of this area which this distinguished group of German scholars have provided.
Hydrological variability, increasing competition for water, and the need for regulatory flexibility may increasingly compel governments to adopt measures with significant economic impact on foreign investment. In International Investment Law and Water Resources Management, Daza-Clark offers an appraisal of indirect expropriation, revisiting the well-known doctrine of the police power. Through the lens of international investment law, the author explores a framework that assesses the legitimate exercise of police power with particular attention to the special nature of water resources.