1 International Investment in China and the Bit Programme

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gallagher Norah ◽  
Shan Wenhua
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Chinese Investment ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
Investment In China ◽  
Changing Role

This chapter examines the changing role of China in international investment, including a historical review followed by a discussion of the main forms of foreign investment in China. It then analyzes aspects of the Chinese investment treaties, focusing on the evolution and features of the BIT programme and the legal status of investment treaties within the Chinese legal system. The chapter ends with a brief introduction to the book.

Chinese Investment Treaties

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gallagher Norah ◽  
Shan Wenhua
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Chinese Investment ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
Dramatic Rise ◽  
Investment Treaties

China's success in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last decade is undisputed and unprecedented. It is currently the second largest FDI recipient in the world, a success partially due to China's efforts to enter into bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and other international investment instruments. This book is a comprehensive commentary on Chinese BITs. Chinese investment treaties have typically provided international forums for settling investment disputes such as the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Given the continuous growth of FDI in China, the emergence of state-investor disagreements in China, and the dramatic rise of investment treaty based arbitrations world wide in recent years, it is anticipated that there will be an increasing number of investment arbitrations involving the central and local governments of China. This book reviews and analyzes China's approach to foreign investment. It considers the current role of investment treaties in China's foreign economic policy, analyzes and interprets the key provisions of the BITs, and discusses the future agenda of China's investment program. It looks at how this investment regime interconnects with the domestic system and considers the implications for a foreign investor in China.

Administrative Review Provisions in Chinese Investment Treaties: ‘Gilding the Lily’?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjiao Chi ◽  
Zongyao Li
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Chinese Investment ◽  
Long Run ◽  
International Investment Agreements ◽  
Administrative Review ◽  
Review Mechanism ◽  
Investment Agreements

Abstract Despite the popularization of investor-state arbitration (ISA), administrative review remains a helpful local remedy for investment-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in some states. China has a complicated and comprehensive legal system of administrative review. It has concluded a large number of international investment agreements (IIAs), and nearly half of them contain an administrative review provision. These provisions could be considered as an expropriation review mechanism, a standalone ISDS option, an ISA supporting measure or a pre-ISA requirement. Given that administrative review has legal and practical limits, and that China’s national law on dispute settlement and foreign investment governance keeps changing, the attractiveness and significance of administrative review for ISDS are diminishing. In China’s recent IIA-making, there appears an emerging trend of abandoning administrative review. In the long run, it remains to be seen how China will balance local remedies and ISA in IIA-making and foreign investment governance in the future.

scholarly journals Guarantees of Legal Stability in the Strict Sense

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-48
Author(s):  
Federico Ortino
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Investment ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
Investment Treaties

The aim of this chapter is to inquire whether, and if so, the extent to which, investment treaties contain guarantees of strict legal stability. More specifically, this chapter asks whether investment treaties contain provisions (a) guaranteeing that contractual undertakings vis-à-vis the foreign investment are respected (contractual stability in the strict sense); and/or (b) ensuring that adverse regulatory changes will not be applied to foreign investments (regulatory stability in the strict sense). First, the chapter finds that legal stability in the strict sense does represent one of the guarantees in international investment treaties, provided specifically through investment treaties’ umbrella clauses and stabilization clauses. Second, based on an examination of recent arbitral decisions, the role of legal stability within the FET standard remains at best ambiguous.

China's International Investment Strategy

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Bilateral Investment Treaties ◽  
Open Door Policy ◽  
Outward Fdi ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Investment Treaties

The phenomenal story of China’s ‘unprecedented disposition to engage the international legal order’ has been primarily told and examined by political scientists and economists. Since China adopted its ‘open door’ policy in 1978, which altered its development strategy from self-sufficiency to active participation in the world market and aimed at attracting foreign investment to fuel its economic development, the underlying policy for mobilizing inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) remains unchanged to date. With the 1997 launch of the ‘Going Global’ policy, an outward focus regarding foreign investment has been added, to circumvent trade barriers and improve the competitiveness of Chinese firms, typically its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In order to accommodate inward and outward FDI, China’s participation in the international investment regime has underpinned its efforts to join multi-lateral investment-related legal instruments and conclude international investment agreements (IIAs). China began by selectively concluding bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with developed countries (major capital exporting states to China at that time), signing its first BIT with Sweden in 1982. Despite being a latecomer, over time China’s experience and practice with the international investment regime have allowed it to evolve towards liberalizing its IIAs regime and balancing the duties and benefits associated with IIAs. The book spans a broad spectrum of China’s contemporary international investment law and policy: domestic foreign investment law and reforms, tax policy, bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, G20 initiatives, the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, international dispute resolution, and inter-regime coordination.

scholarly journals FEATURES OF GLOBAL INVESTMENT POLICY: MODERN TRENDS AND PROSPECTS

2019 ◽  
pp. 142-148
Author(s):  
Larisa Germanovna Chuvakhina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
World Economy ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Investment Policy ◽  
Investment Promotion ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World

The article highlights the current problems of investments in the development of the world economy, when international investment needs are significantly high. The priority is given to the issues of investment resources for achieving the goals of sustainable development of the world economy. It has been stated that for creating the effective economic policy, the countries need to attract foreign investment. The current trends in the development of global market for foreign direct investment flows are examined. The flows of global foreign direct investment in 2017-2018 are analyzed. Special attention is given to the study of the US investment policy. The reduction in US investments into the Russian economy in terms of the sanctions policy against Russia is marked. The changes in the investment policy of the administration of D. Trump in terms of strengthening American protectionism are underlined. The issues of US-EU investment cooperation are considered. The role of the US Federal Reserve in regulating the activities of foreign companies in the US market is defined. The main decisions taken at the X World Investment Forum of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in October, 2018 are considered. The role of investment promotion agencies is defined as one of the tools to attract foreign investments into the country's economy. The decrease in the level of international investment and increased competition between countries for attracting foreign investment is stated. The study confirms that the investment attractiveness of the country, stability of the national financial system, and legal security of business play a decisive role in attracting foreign direct investment.

TRANSFORMATION OF FOREIGN TRADE POLICY AMID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Kutovoi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Foreign Trade Policy ◽  
Investment Policies

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has seriously affected the international investment policies of the G20 countries. There has been a growing trend to introduce measures with reference to the protection of national security aiming at countering threats that may be associated with foreign investment. Given the role of international investment in alleviating the economic crisis, governments should continue to improve the investment climate while protecting their national security interests.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Nicolás M. Perrone
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Investment Law

The role of the business leaders, bankers, and lawyers who promoted investment treaties and ISDS in the post-World War II period remains controversial. The introductory chapter argues that these norm entrepreneurs and their professional associations created a legal imagination about foreign investment relations which remains alive and well in both international investment law and ISDS awards. Their contribution to the progressive development of the law consisted of ideas as much as practice, particularly the way in which they collated their ideas into a vision of foreign investment relations. The chapter introduces the main features of this legal imagination, including the relevance of certain interpretations of property and contracts. It claims that grasping this imagination calls for a transnational law method, and concludes with an overview of the book.

scholarly journals The Unworkability of “Balanced Treaties” and the Importance of Diversity of Approach Among the BRICS

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 223-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sornarajah
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Recent Attempt ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Newly Industrializing Countries ◽  
Global North ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
The Third World

There is much rethinking being done about investment treaties. While some level of uniformity existed when there was institutional direction by the World Bank and hegemonic pressure exerted by states in the Global North, geopolitical power is now shifting in ways that are producing greater diversity in approaches to the field. The evidence seems to indicate that each state that is of sufficient size or power will seek to fashion its foreign investment policy in the context of its own circumstances. This is certainly true for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (the BRICS). Within this group of newly industrializing countries, it is clear that a uniform approach to investment treaties will not emerge, despite avowals to the contrary. In this essay, I offer an assessment of the divergent paths some of these states have taken. I contend that China has emerged as a newly hegemonic actor in international investment in a way that undermines its traditional role as champion for the Third World, and that India's recent attempt to develop a “balanced approach” to investment treaties is unworkable. Only South Africa has developed an approach that seeks to protect its government's ability to serve the goals of its people by subjecting foreign investment disputes to South African law and courts.

The Role of International Human Rights Law in Re-Shaping Investor-State Arbitration

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-41
Author(s):  
Susan L. Karamanian
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Investment ◽  
International Investment ◽  
International Standards ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Investment Agreements ◽  
New Process ◽  
State Consent ◽  
Investment Agreements

Over the past few decades, a new process has dominated how States treat foreign investment and the consequences to States for breaching international standards. The system's key feature, the means for settling a foreign investor's dispute with a State that hosts the investment, lacks traditional elements of State judicial systems. Instead, it is a creature of State consent as reflected in international investment agreements (IIAs). In IIAs, States promise to treat foreign investment and the investors in a certain, fundamentally fair, way. Many IIAs authorize foreign investors and States to select private arbitrators to resolve claims that host States breached their promises under the IIA. The arbitrators, in turn, are empowered to issue arbitral awards.

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