Conversion

Author(s):  
Taylor St John

This chapter analyzes the purposes that American officials ascribe to investor–state arbitration in their investment treaties, using internal documents from all pre-NAFTA American investment treaty negotiations. Officials drafting the initial US model treaty in the late 1970s saw ISDS as a narrow tool to protect investment, but a decade later, it was reimagined as a way to lock in domestic liberalization reforms in former Soviet or Latin American states. Similarly, the American investment treaty program was not intended to facilitate outward investments, but rhetoric has changed: in the early 1990s, additional investment was implied to treaty partners, before and after these years officials noted that treaties and ISDS do not necessarily lead to additional investment. Finally, while access to arbitration became a pillar of American policy, at first investor access to ICSID caused the State Department frustration and endangered US strategic interests.

Author(s):  
Gustavo Xavier Bonifaz

The present paper aims at answering why a country that shared, with other Latin American states, a centralist tradition that was even strengthened in the aftermath of its 1952 revolution, became one of the most radical and complex decentralisers in the region. The present is a country case study in which, using a process-tracing analysis, the evolution of decentralisation in Bolivia will be explained up to its current complex structure from a perspective of the relationship between political legitimation under competitive elections and the way in which the party system processed longstanding tensions between the state and different segments of society.


1942 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Charles Loomis

The decision of the State Department to employ three outstanding rural sociologists to make sociological and anthropological studies in three leading Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico was based in no small measure upon the reputation of the rural sociologists in the applied field. A year ago last February Professor T. Lynn Smith, Head of the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University, was sent to Brazil; in May, Dr. Carl C. Taylor, Head of the Division of Farm Population and Rural Welfare in the United States Department of Agriculture, left for Argentina; and in June, Professor Nathan Whetten, Dean of the Graduate School at Connecticut University left for Mexico. The State Department, which is furnishing these rural sociologists funds to conduct the investigations in the respective countries, and the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations in the USDA, which cooperates in the direction of the studies, have permitted each of these men wide latitude within which to work.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 401-442
Author(s):  
Antonius R. Hippolyte

Abstract With the intensification of their participation in the foreign investment regime, Latin American States are finding it difficult to implement measures beneficial to protecting their environments due to their obligations to third States. This governance deficit is further compounded by the regime’s neoliberal predisposition in favour of property protection, which has penetrated the system and implicated the system of investment treaty arbitration, the regime’s primary dispute settlement mechanism. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (icsid) has also been implicated. This is seen in the momentous diversity in investor-State disputes resolved by various icsid tribunals, which concern attempts by Latin American States to protect their physical environments such as the protection of wildlife or other matters such as the regulation of hazardous waste landfills and ensuring that citizens have access to clean water. Tribunals have approached such disputes primarily from a commercial standpoint, ignoring non-market alternatives such as environmental considerations.


Subject The latest US support for Taiwan. Significance The US State Department on September 24 approved the sale of 330 million dollars' worth of military aircraft parts to Taiwan -- the latest of several moves in Washington this month that increase support for Taiwan. On September 3, a bill was introduced to Congress that allows the State Department to penalise other countries for severing diplomatic relations with Taiwan. On September 7, senior US diplomats were recalled from Latin American countries that had done so. Impacts The US defence department will work more closely with Taiwan’s military to upgrade its capabilities. Despite US disapproval, more of Taiwan’s diplomatic partners will probably switch to China, given the economic incentives. Loss of diplomatic allies could become a major issue in Taiwan's 2020 national elections, to the ruling party's detriment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1321-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Silva Romero ◽  
Ana Carolina Simões E Silva

In the past decade, Latin American States have begun to voice strong criticisms of the existing system for the settlement of disputes between foreign private investors and States through international arbitration based on investment treaties. Since the end of the nineties, said system has undergone an extraordinary development due to the direct right of action granted to foreign investors by investment treaties. Indeed, the great majority of the thousands of investment treaties existing today not only grant substantive protection to investments made by investors of one State party in the territory of the other State party to the treaty, but also contain investor-State dispute settlement provisions allowing investors to initiate arbitration proceedings against host States for an alleged breach of the treaty by the State. The practice of arbitration based on investment treaties has, however, generated many difficulties with respect to both the arbitral tribunals’ application of the substantive protections provided for in the treaties and to the functioning of the arbitration proceedings. In response to those difficulties, Latin American States are seeking to set up regional legal and political cooperation initiatives to create alternatives to the existing system. The Declaration of the 1st Ministerial Meeting of the Latin American States Affected by Transnational Interests (Declaration) adopted in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 22, 2013 is one recent example of such initiatives.


Caderno CRH ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (84) ◽  
pp. 535
Author(s):  
Maíra Machado Bichir

<p><span>No presente artigo, lançamos nosso olhar para uma temática de especial relevância para o contexto político atual latino-americano – o Estado. Ao revisitar os escritos de Ruy Mauro Marini, uma das principais referências da Teoria Marxista da Dependência, chamamos atenção para suas formulações em torno dos Estados latino-americanos, sobretudo no que se refere a seu caráter dependente, tema ainda pouco trabalhado nos estudos recentes de recuperação de sua obra. Nesse sentido, iniciamos nosso percurso tecendo algumas considerações sobre a concepção de Estado de Marini, salientando sua filiação à tradição teórica marxista, avançando, em seguida, para suas elaborações sobre as particularidades do Estado capitalista dependente latino-americano propriamente, centrando-nos, sobretudo, em dois temas que representam, em nossa perspectiva, dois importantes aportes de Marini à análise dos Estados latino-americanos: suas formulações em torno do subimperialismo e do Estado de contrainsurgência.</span></p><div><p class="trans-title">CONTRIBUTIONS OF RUY MAURO MARINI TO THE DEBATE ON THE STATE IN DEPENDENT COUNTRIES</p><p>In this article, we look at a theme of special relevance to the current Latin American political context, the State. Revisiting Ruy Mauro Marini’s writings, one of the main references to the Marxist Theory of Dependence, we pretend to highlight its formulations on the Latin American States, especially on their dependent nature, which, we argue, is a subject loosely studied by the recent recoveries of his work. So, this article began with important considerations about Marini’s conception of the State, emphasizing its affiliation to the Marxist theoretical tradition. Further, the study focus on the particularities of the Latin American dependent capitalist State, with special attention on two themes that represent, in our view, two important contributions of Marini to the analysis of the Latin American States, which are: his formulations on sub-imperialism and the State of counter-insurgency.</p><p><strong>Key words: </strong>State; Dependency; Latin America; Politics; Marxist theory of dependency</p></div><div><p class="trans-title">CONTRIBUTIONS DE RUY MAURO MARINI AU DEBAT SUR L’ÉTAT DANS LES PAYS DEPENDANTS</p><p>Dans cet article, nous examinons un thème particulièrement pertinent pour le contexte politique latino-américain actuel, l’État. Pour revenir sur les écrits de Ruy Mauro Marini, l’une des principales références de la Théorie Marxiste de la Dépendance, nous appelons l’attention sur ses formulations autour des États latino-américains, en particulier en ce qui concerne le caractère dépendant de ces États, thème encore peu exploité dans les études récentes de récupération de son travail. En ce sens, nous avons commencé notre chemin à tisser quelques considérations sur la conception de l’État de Marini, surlignant son appartenance à la tradition théorique marxiste, passant ensuite à ses élaborations sur les particularités de l’État capitaliste dépendant de l’Amérique latine spécifiquement, en se concentrant principalement sur deux thèmes qui représentent, sous notre perspective, deux contributions importantes de Marini à l’analyse des États latino-américains, ses formulations autour du sous-impérialisme et de l’État de la contre-insurrection.</p><p><strong>Key words: </strong>État; Dépendance; Amérique latine; Politique; Théorie marxiste de la dependance</p></div>


Author(s):  
Sabahi Borzu

This chapter discusses various principles that may limit the amount of compensation that an investor may recover. Causation is examined, focusing particularly on legal causation. The effects of the investor's actions on compensation through contributory negligence and the obligation to mitigate losses are also discussed. The chapter touches upon a State's counterclaims, particularly the issue of jurisdiction over counterclaims in investment treaty arbitration. The state of necessity defence, in both customary international law and under investment treaties, is examined with its effect on the amount of compensation due; with particular attention to the cases arising from the Argentine financial crisis in 2000–02. Other included principles which affect compensation are the issues of burden of proof and the prohibition of double counting. Finally, the chapter examines the application of equity in awarding compensation.


Author(s):  
Alba Manuel

This chapter examines the ‘delocalization’ of shipping disputes resulting from the widespread use of standard arbitration clauses channelling disputes to major arbitration centres, even if those disputes involve parties having no connection with such centres. It argues that such delocalization deprives certain countries or regions of the progressive accrual and consolidation of a transnational maritime law. Prior to the recent overhaul of Spanish maritime arbitration, the completely out-dated state and scarce usefulness of Spanish domestic maritime law had among its causes the lack of any vibrant maritime arbitration. The experience of Latin-American states likewise suggests that the state of the law somehow goes hand in hand with the existence of minimally specialized and satisfactory dispute resolution methods in the maritime field. These conclusions emphasize the importance of arbitration to the development of substantive law in a highly globalized field such as shipping.


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