Resources and Events
Resources
United Kingdom Assessment of the Costs and Benefits of Investment Protection Treaties
United Kingdom Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, November 2013
Three new reports commissioned by the Government of the United Kingdom examine the cost and benefits of investment treaties for the UK. The first report develops an analytical framework to assess costs and benefits of investment treaties. The second and third reports apply the framework to EU-China and EU-US agreements. The authors recommend that the UK government should consider either excluding the investment protection chapter from the EU-US free trade agreement altogether; or retaining investment protection provisions but excluding an investor state dispute settlement mechanism. The second option would not affect the “already negligible” benefits of an investment protection treaty while largely removing the costs of the treaty to the UK. According to the authors, those costs include the prospect of successful investment treaty claims, international investors gaining more rights under investment treaties than under UK domestic law, and the political cost associated with high-profile claims from US investors and, to a lesser extent, reduced scope to decide policy.
Analytical framework for assessing costs and benefits of investment protection treaties is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/analytical-framework-for-assessment-costs-and-benefits-of-investment-protection-treaties
Costs and benefits of an EU-China Investment Protection Treaty is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/costs-and-benefits-to-the-uk-of-an-eu-us-investment-protection-treaty
Costs and benefits of an EU-US Investment Protection Treaty is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/costs-and-benefits-to-the-uk-of-an-eu-us-investment-protection-treaty
How to Use Law to Make Foreign Investment Work for Sustainable Development
International Institute for Environment and Development, November 2013
This handbook shows how government officials and civil society organisations in low and middle-income countries can use legal tools to ensure foreign investments contribute to sustainable development. The book focuses on investments in agriculture and the extractive industries—mining, oil and gas. It covers the variety of legal arenas that can influence the outcomes of investments—from investment treaties, extractive industry legislation, land tenure, human rights norms, environmental legislation and tax law—including arrangements to fight tax avoidance. The book covers four main ways in which government and civil society can use legal tools to promote sustainable development: aligning public policies and decisions on investment with a strategic vision of sustainable development based on local and national aspirations; ensuring a fair economic deal; taking social and environmental considerations seriously; and balancing investment protection with competing policy goals. Available here: http://www.iied.org/how-use-law-make-foreign-investment-work-for-sustainable-development
Investment Law within International Law: Integrationist Perspectives
Cambridge University Press, December 2013
Developments within various sub-fields of international law influence international investment law, but changes in investment law also have an impact on the evolution of other fields within international law. Through contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, this book analyses specific links between investment law and other sub-fields of international law, such as the law on armed conflict, human rights, sustainable development, trade, development and EU law. In particular, this book scrutinizes how concepts, principles and rules developed in the context of such sub-fields could inform the content of investment law. Solutions aimed at resolving problems in other settings may provide instructive examples for addressing current problems in the field of investment law, and vice versa. The underlying question is whether key sub-fields of public international law, notably international investment law, are open to cross-fertilisation, or, whether they are evolving further into self-contained regimes. Available here: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/law/arbitration-dispute-resolution-and-mediation/investment-law-within-international-law-integrationist-perspectives
Events
January 2014
31
ASA Annual Conference – 10 Years of Swiss Rules of International Arbitration, Swiss Arbitration Association, Basel, Switzerland, http://www.arbitration-ch.org/pages/en/asa-events/details/37.asa-annual-conference.html#.UothWmSxOFc
March 2014
17 – 21
Multi-year Expert Meeting on Investment, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Productive Capacity-building and Sustainable Development, UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland, http://UNCTAD.org/en/Pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=427
21-23
ASA Arbitration Practice Seminar, Swiss Arbitration Association, Tremezzo, Lago di Como, Italy, http://www.arbitration-ch.org/pages/en/asa-events/details/72.asa-arbitration-practice-seminar.html#.UotiOmSxOFc
26-28
10th Anniversary Conference of the Asia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group, APRAG, Melbourne, Australia, http://apragmelbourne2014.org/
April 2014
24 – 25
Public Symposium with Civil Society, UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland, http://unctad.org/en/Pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=433
June 2014
16 – 20
Fiftieth Anniversary of UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland, http://unctad.org/en/Pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=437
