Resources and Events
Resources
Chinese Outward Investment: An Emerging Policy Framework
Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Lise Johnson, Jianping Zhang, IISD, 2012
This book is an English-language compilation covering over 80 primary texts relevant to Chinese outward investment issued from January 2000 to January 2012. The compilation makes these primary sources easy to access and understand, in an effort to facilitate a broader and deeper understanding of Chinese outward investment and the policies supporting it, and, importantly, will facilitate more and improved discourse on and analysis of the relationship between Chinese outward investment and sustainable development. The report is available here: http://www.IISD.org/publications/pub.aspx?id=1720
Transparency
UNCTAD, March 2013
This report addresses transparency provisions in international investment agreements (IIAs), and offers practical policy guidance and drafting suggestions for IIA stakeholders. Entitled Transparency, the study is the most recent sequel to UNCTAD’s Pink Series of papers on IIAs. It examines the way in which transparency is addressed in IIAs, and how the thinking on transparency provisions has evolved since the publication of UNCTAD’s 2004 volume on the topic. Among the new developments cited is the expansion of transparency requirements to investors. A further trend is the emergence of transparency provisions within investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS). The study focuses in particular on the emergence of transparency as a consideration in ISDS. It reviews the implications of this conceptual shift for dispute resolution. A key feature of the analysis is a focus on a new tendency in IIAs to incorporate transparency and public-participation provisions in dispute settlement procedures. The report also considers the sustainable development implications of this approach. The report is available here: http://UNCTAD.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=415&Sitemap_x0020_Taxonomy=Investment
FDI Perspectives: Issues in International Investment, 2nd Edition
edited by Karl P. Sauvant and Jennifer Reimer, Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment, November 2012
This second edition of FDI Perspectives provides an overview of important contemporary issues relating to foreign direct investment and multinational enterprises for all those who are interested in this subject, but are not always in a position to follow diverse perspectives and what is being written in the various corners of this field. The contributions are grouped under the following headings: attracting FDI and its impact; the rise of emerging market investors; national policies; sustainable international investment; and international investment treaties and arbitration. The volume brings together all Perspectives published since the inception of this series. The ebook is available here. http://www.vcc.columbia.edu/books
GVCs and Development: Investment and Value Added Trade in the Global Economy
UNCTAD, February 2013
This report focuses on the ever-more complicated webs of investment and trade, by which raw materials extracted in one country may be exported to a second country for processing, then exported again to a manufacturing plant in a third country, which may then export to a fourth country for final consumption. Entitled GVCs and Development: Investment and Value Added Trade in the Global Economy estimates that the value chains administered in various ways by transnational corporations (TNCs) now account for 80 per cent of global trade. The report is a launch publication for a new UNCTAD database that maps the distribution of value added in global trade. The UNCTAD-EORA GVC Database—part of UNCTAD’s FDI-TNCs-GVC Information System—provides new perspectives on trade links between economies in the trade–investment nexus. Among other things, the database focuses on the distribution of value added, on income and employment resulting from trade, and on how global investment drives patterns of value-added trade. The database covers 187 countries, including nearly all developing economies. It provides statistics on a broad range of industries of relevance to developing countries. UNCTAD intends to build on the preliminary analyses of the new data presented in this publication in its forthcoming World Investment Report 2013, which will examine the mechanisms through which GVCs can contribute to development, as well as the risks involved for developing countries. The report is available here: http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=411&Sitemap_x0020_Taxonomy=Investment
The History of ICSID
Antonio R. Parra, Oxford University Press, August 2012
This is the first book to detail the history and development of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and its constituent treaty, the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States, covering the years from 1955 to 2010.
The author, Antonio Parra, was first Deputy Secretary-General of ICSID. He traces the immediate origins of the Convention, in the years 1955 to 1962, and gives a stage-by-stage narrative of the drafting of the Convention between 1962 and 1965. He recounts details of bringing the Convention into force in 1966 and the elaboration of the initial versions of the Regulations and Rules of ICSID adopted at the first meetings of its Administrative Council in 1967. The three periods 1968 to 1988, 1989 to 1999, and 2000 to June 30, 2010, are covered in separate chapters which examine the expansion of the Centre’s activities and changes made to the Regulations and Rules over the years. There are also overviews of the conciliation and arbitration cases submitted to ICSID in the respective periods, followed by in-depth discussions of selected cases and key issues within them. A concluding chapter discusses some of the broad themes and findings of the book, and includes several suggestions for further changes at ICSID to help ensure its continued success.
The book is available to order here: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199660568.do
Events
March
24-25
Art and Heritage Disputes, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Faculties/FL/Theme/ResearchPortal/Conferences/ArtAndHeritageDisputes1.htm
April
4
Maintaining Standards in International Investment Arbitration, Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment, New York, United States, http://www.vcc.columbia.edu/content/maintaining-standards-international-investment-arbitration
8
The Dog That Did Not Bark: The Mystery of the Missing Dispute Settlement Chapter in NAFTA, Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment, New York, United States, http://www.vcc.columbia.edu/content/dog-did-not-bark-mystery-missing-dispute-settlement-chapter-nafta
21-23
Convergence and Divergence in International Arbitration Practice, the Atlanta International Arbitration Society, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, http://arbitrateatlanta.org/events/convergence-and-divergence-in-international-arbitration-practice/
May
7
The New ICC Arbitration Rules 2012 – Changes & First Experiences, International Chamber of Commerce, Vienna, Austria, http://www.icc-austria.org/de/Seminare/Aktuelle-Seminare/1218.htm
22-24
The Roles of Psychology in International Arbitration, Brunel Centre for the Study of Arbitration and Cross-Border Investment, London, UK, http://www.brunel.ac.uk/law
June
13-14
Fifth Latin American Arbitration Conference, University of Buenos Aires’ Law School, Buenos Aires, Argentina, http://www.clarbitraje.com/v2/?lang=en
28
International Arbitration and Related Matters, International Bar Association, St. Petersburg, Russia, http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=D1AAE6B9-1568-4ECE-9024-A574A703A087
November
7
Salient Issues in International Commercial Arbitration, American University, Washington College of Law, Washington, DC. United States, https://www.wcl.american.edu/arbitration/symposium.cfm
