Constitutional Courts and International Investment Law in Latin America: Between Escalation and Conditional Coexistence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Gustavo Prieto Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law

scholarly journals Interpretation of International Law by National Judges: Opportunities and Challenges. The Case of International Investment Law in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Marcelo Lozada Gómez ◽  
Paola Acosta Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Law ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Investment ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Fragmentation Of International Law

The role of national judges in international law is still an undecided subject matter. Most scholars consider the decisions from national judges merely as acts of States, denying the possibility that those judgments constitute an autonomous source of international law. This position is grounded in the idea that national judges do not regularly employ sources of international law, and therefore, their opinion about them is not quite important. Nevertheless, recent phenomena have highlighted and triggered the intervention of national judges regarding the interpretation and enforcement of international law. The growing scope of international rules, which now regulate intra-states issues, as well as the fragmentation of international law, and the internationalisation of national orders, inter alia, have demanded domestic courts’ intervention in order to face these changes and avoid undesirable consequences. In this context, this article aims to: 1. bring an outlook on the evolution of the role assigned to national judges; 2. explore the phenomena that triggered their intervention; 3. analyse the outcomes of this increasing participation, namely how national judges change the usual dynamics of interpretation and evolution of international law; 4. apply these ideas to explain the intervention of national judges in Latin America regarding the enforcement of foreign investment law; and 5. conclude with some remarks about the future of this relationship between national and international law as well as the importance of a better understanding of the role of national judges.

NCD Prevention and International Investment Law in Latin America: Chile’s Experience in Preventing Obesity and Unhealthy Diets

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 781-808
Author(s):  
Marcelo Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Investment ◽  
National Treatment ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Nutrition Labelling ◽  
Treatment Standard ◽  
Fair And Equitable Treatment ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Equitable Treatment

Abstract In 2016, Chile became the first country in Latin America to implement comprehensive regulations aimed at preventing obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases. It introduced innovative measures including a mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme for food products high in sodium, free sugars, fats, and calories, and strict advertising and marketing restrictions of unhealthy foods to children under 14 years of age. However, food-exporting countries have questioned the lawfulness of these measures in the context of the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade Committee, and multinational food companies have filed several complaints before Chilean courts challenging their implementation. This article provides an overview of specific legal issues discussed in domestic courts and examines Chile’s measures under the rules of international investment law. It assesses whether they would withstand a treaty claim based on indirect expropriation, breach of the national treatment standard, and breach of the fair and equitable treatment standard.

The Rise of Common Principles for Investment in Latin America: Proposing a Methodological Shift for Investor-State Dispute Settlement

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 614-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Gustavo Prieto Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Law ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Arbitration ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The 19Th Century

The present article argues for the need of an alternative way of thinking about international investment law and investor-State disputes in Latin America. The article explains how the current critical approach to foreign investment comes from a conceptual trajectory that originated in the 19th century with the work of Carlos Calvo, inspired in turn by Emer De Vattel’s conceptual model for international law, and how a principles discourse would be a viable alternative for enhancing the legitimacy of investment arbitration. The article further structures such a principles discourse in three clusters: general principles recognised by Latin American nations; principles compatible with concepts developed by investment arbitrators, and regional principles not yet recognised by international investment arbitrators. The last cluster contains in particular principles such as transparency and inclusion that ought to be the core of a Latin American discourse as the limit of the authority granted to investment arbitrators.

LL.M. THESIS: The Role of Constitutional Courts in International Investment Law and Investment Treaty Arbitration: A Latin American Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 667-745
Author(s):  
Juan Camilo Fandiño-Bravo
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Investment Treaty Arbitration

Protection and promotion of foreign investment, one essential element of international economic relations and a cornerstone of the macroeconomic policy of developing States, like Latin-American States, is deemed to be undergoing a ‘legitimacy crisis’ that manifests itself in a generalized discontent by the system’s major stakeholders and some sectors of public society. One of the sources of such crisis can be found in the lack of a proper understanding of the nature of the system itself. After identifying the reasons why the problematiques of International Investment Law and Investment Treaty Arbitration are better understood as matters of public law, this work adopts a comparative public law approach to study the different ways in which Latin-American constitutional courts intervene in International Investment Law and Investment Treaty Arbitration, and outlines the major features of a proposed dialectic relation between constitutional courts and arbitral tribunals, in which constitutional courts can benefit from the study of the findings of arbitral tribunals regarding the nature and scope of substantive standards of protection, among others, in the process of reviewing the constitutionality of International Investment Agreements, and arbitral tribunals can use national constitutional doctrine as one among other public law sources in which to inform their task. The adoption of such an approach will assist in the reduction of the legitimacy gap of International Investment Law and Investment Treaty Arbitration, thus helping to overcome the crisis of the system.

scholarly journals New trends in international investment law treaty practice: where does Latin America stand?

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (79) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Mara Valenti
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Investment ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law

Os posicionamentos dos países latino-americanos no que se refere a regulações deinvestimentos internacionais sofreram uma recente revolução. Durante os anos de 1990, essespaíses assinaram diversos Tratados Bilaterais de Investimentos (TBIs), tornaram-se signatários da Convenção de Washington e, atualmente, tomam frente em um processo de reanálise do sistema legal que permeia os TBIs. Suas recentes práticas de negociação são bons exemplos do surgimento de uma nova geração de tratados de investimentos. Nesse sentido, a análise das cláusulas principais do Protocolo do Mercosul revela a intenção de fortemente limitar a extensão de tratamento e de proteção garantida a investidores estrangeiros.

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