China Moves the G20 towards an International Investment Framework and Investment Facilitation

2019 ◽  
pp. 311-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl P Sauvant
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Sustainable Investment ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Investment Facilitation

China, as the President of the G20 in 2016, has had an opportunity to advance the discussion of these issues. The country has taken a special interest in international investment, judging from the decision to create the G20’s Trade and Investment Working Group. This reflects both the role of FDI in China’s own development and especially its recent rise as an important outward investor. This chapter discusses the emergence of China as an outward investor, embedded in the rise of emerging markets as home countries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The chapter also contains an analysis of some policy issues related to the rise of FDI from emerging markets. A brief discussion of issues central to the future of the international investment law and policy regime follows, including the adoption of non-binding principles outlining the architecture of a comprehensive framework on international investment. The chapter finally focuses on a concrete proposal for a sustainable investment facilitation programme that could be launched as a follow-up of the discussions initiated under China’s leadership.

Emerging Markets and the International Investment Law and Policy Regime

2018 ◽  
pp. 126-158
Author(s):  
Karl P. Sauvant
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The One ◽  
Responsible Manner

Multinational enterprises, including those headquartered in emerging markets, operate within the confines of the international investment law and policy regime. On the one hand, this regime prescribes the extent to which these firms can invest abroad, and it provides various protections for their investments. On the other hand, the regime prescribes increasingly that the operations of these firms need to be conducted in a responsible manner. The relevant standards are formulated by governments. The chapter discusses the rise of the international investment regime, its substantive and procedural content, and how and why the regime has changed over time, paying special attention to issues relating to emerging markets. Accordingly, the focus of this chapter is on the actions of governments, illustrating in the process of the discussion how emerging market multinational enterprises can benefit both from the regime and how they are constrained by it.

Social movements, reframing investment relations, and enhancing the application of human rights norms in international investment law

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Moshe Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Arbitration ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Investment Law

Abstract The recent moderate trend to increasingly apply human rights law in investment awards is accompanied by certain new investment treaties which include expressed human rights provisions. An analysis of recent investment awards indicates that though there are some ‘winds of change’ in this field, it is equally noticeable that human rights law is far from being mainstreamed in international investment law. Investment arbitration procedural law is also undergoing a process of change, and the new procedural rules tend to enhance public elements in the investment arbitral system. This study is aimed at explaining these recent legal changes, highlighting the role of social movements in reframing investment relations as well as increasing public pressure to apply human rights law. These framing changes concern broadening the frame of investment arbitration (beyond the foreign investor–host state dyad), reversing the perceived balance of power between investors and host states, and zooming-in on local individuals and communities residing in host states. The discussion on factors impeding legal change in this field emphasizes the role of the private legal culture prevalent in the investment arbitration system, which is reflected and reinforced by certain resilient socio-legal frames. Informed by this analysis, the study suggests some legal mechanisms which can mitigate the inter-partes frame, and increase the application of human rights law in investment arbitration; inter alia, rigorous transparency rules that are likely to facilitate increased public pressure on tribunals and increase the participation of social movements representing local actors in arbitral processes.

scholarly journals The Role of Sub-Regional Systems in Shaping International Investment Law-Making: The Case of the Visegrád Group

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-153
Author(s):  
Federica Cristani
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Main Question ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Regional System ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Advocacy Role ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThe present chapter focuses on the role of the Visegrád group (or V4, comprising Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic) in international investment law-making. The chapter starts with a brief overview of the V4 group as a sub-regional system in Europe, including its modus operandi and main achievements in the field of economic cooperation. Subsequently, it turns to the regulation of foreign direct investment (FDI), both at the level of each V4 state and at EU level—with particular regard to the implication of the EU’s exclusive competence on FDI. Special attention is paid to the approach of the V4 countries towards the question of termination of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs)—including an overview of the related objections to jurisdiction that the four countries have raised over the years in investor-state arbitrations based on intra-EU BITs—and to the relationship of the V4 group with non-EU countries—especially with (selected) East Asian countries. The main question is whether—and to what extent—the V4 group as a sub-regional system has a role to play in international investment law-making. The chapter highlights the proactive and advocacy role that the V4 group has traditionally played in manifold subject-matters, including the promotion and protection of FDI, and supports the positive “soft power” the V4 may exercise in this respect.

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.

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