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This paper provides a brief overview of recent UNCTAD research on the nexus between international investment treaties and sustainable development. After sketching the historic evolution and current trends in IIA treaty practice, it explores the linkages between IIAs and three areas of public policy-making that have been at the centre of UNCTAD's research and policy analysis with respect to IIAs and sustainable development. These include 1) combating climate change; 2) integrating investment and industrial policy; and 3) promoting responsible corporate behaviour. The paper concludes on the need for more inter-State cooperation to address the various challenges facing the IIA regime today and to enhance its sustainability dimension. In this context, UNCTAD's recently released Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development (IPFSD) can provide helpful guidance for the formulation of a new generation of more sustainable investment policy-making.
Sustainable development, as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development, is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." More specifically, sustainable development is a process of change that seeks to improve the collective quality of life by focusing on economically, socially, and environmentally sound projects that are viable in the long-term. Sustainable development requires structural economic change and the foundation of that change is investment. In developing nations with low levels of domestic savings, investment predictably comes from abroad in the form of foreign direct investment. A large and ever expanding number of international investment agreements are in place to govern these transactions. While these accords seek to foster development while mitigating the risk involved in these types investments, many questions remain unresolved. This highly insightful book reflects the contributions of a variety of world renowned experts each of which is designed to provide the reader with valuable perspective on recent developments in investment law negotiations and jurisprudence from a sustainable development law perspective. It offers answers to pertinent questions concerning advancements in investment law, including the negotiation of numerous regional and bilateral agreements as well as the increasing number of disputes resolved in the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), from different developed and developing country perspectives. It lays out future directions for new treaty negotiations and dispute settlement proceedings, as well as ongoing investment promotion efforts, against a background of rapidly evolving international relationships between economic, environment and development law. It focuses on key issues in investment laws which have emerged as priorities in the negotiation of bilateral and regional investment agreements, and have been clarified through recent decisions of the ICSID and other arbitral panel awards.
"This book looks at the role played by international investment agreements (IIAs) ... in fostering sustainable development."--Executive summary.
This Guide is designed to assist developing countries to negotiate International Investment Agreements (IIAs) that are more effective in promoting their sustainable development. A useful reference tool for developing country negotiators and interested parties.
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 scrutinises 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.
The chapter explores the different forms in which references to international labor standards appear in International Investment Agreements (IIAs), and provides an analytical framework to evaluate their intended purpose and potential effects. After discussing the role of international labor standards, as well as the role of foreign direct investment in fostering sustainable development, the chapter presents a detailed analysis of the different types of labor provisions that are presently found in IIAs. It then evaluates the evolution in treaty language in relation to labor provisions and the prospects of such language for mainstreaming sustainable development into IIAs.
Sustainable Development in EU Foreign Investment Law offers a clear and convincing assessment of how the EU contributes to the ongoing debate on sustainable development integration in international investment agreements.
The current international investment law system is insufficiently compatible with sustainable development. To better address sustainable development concerns associated with transnational investment activities, international investment agreements should be made more compatible with sustainable development. Integrating Sustainable Development in International Investment Law presents an important systematic study of the issue of sustainable development in the international investment law system, using conceptual, normative and governance perspectives to explore the challenges and possible solutions for making international investment law more compatible with sustainable development. Chi suggests that to effectively address the sustainable development concerns associated with transnational investment activities, the international investment agreements system should be reformed. Such reform should feature redesigning the provisions of the agreements, improving the structure of international investment agreements, strengthening the function of soft law, engaging non-state actors and enhancing the dispute settlement mechanism. The book is primarily aimed at national and international treaty and policy-makers, lawyers and scholars. It is also suitable for graduate students studying international law and policy-making.
The proliferation of International Investment Agreements (IIAs) and treaty-based investment arbitration has raised concerns over the extent to which IIAs are actually fair and are able to balance the interests of foreign investors and States. The strong protections afforded by IIAs to investors may restrict the host State's ability to regulate for the public interest and potentially allow newly adopted public policies to be subject to compensation. Several economic transactions that have qualified as investments for treaty protection have fallen short of contributing to the host State's sustainable development. They have not added to the generation of employment and growth, the transfer of new technologies and knowledge or the strengthening of infrastructure. Nor have many of these economic transactions contributed to the home country's development. Moreover, regulatory measures adopted with the aim of fostering sustainable development (ie environmental measures) have been successfully challenged by investors. In some cases tribunals have interpreted these measures as creeping or indirect expropriations, therefore requiring compensation. Both the lack of consideration for the host State's interests under international investment law and the limitation to the State's policy space have been perceived as having negative implications for the development of the country, and in particular for the adoption of sustainable policies. Though little empirical evidence exists, it has been suggested that investment arbitration is a threat to the adoption of public policy regulations and may even have a 'chilling effect' on them.A possible way forward is the negotiation of a new generation of investment treaties, as well as the renegotiation and revision of the existing ones. These changes are needed in order to balance the interests of States and investors and to incorporate innovative features in light of the necessary policy space that States require in order to foster sustainable development through the application of dynamic social and environmental norms and regulations. Another alternative is the adoption of interpretative approaches, which ultimately foster sustainable development goals. The preferred options are the contextual and dynamic interpretation of the intention of the contracting States, as well as the systemic integration of international rules and norms into investor-State disputes.
International investment law has often been seen as an obstacle to sustainable development. While the connections between investment and development are plain, for a long time there has been relatively little scholarship exploring them. Combining critical reflection and detailed analysis, this book addresses the relationship between contemporary investment law and development. The book is organized around two competing visions of investment and development - as working either harmoniously or in conflict with one another. The expert contributors reflect on both of these views and analyse the social dimensions of development and its impact on investment law. Coverage includes in-depth discussion on such issues as human rights, poverty reduction, labor standards, and indigenous peoples. Students and scholars of international investment law will benefit from the informed analysis of the links between investment and development. This book will also be of use to practitioners and experts of development law who are looking for an up-to-date perspective of the field.