International Law on Foreign Investment

This committee was formed in May 2003.

Mandate

The task of the Committee will be to study both the substantive and procedural aspects of the law governing foreign investment. Among the substantive questions will be the regulation of admission, standards of treatment, performance requirements, direct and indirect expropriation including compensation, currency transfers, issues of development as well as human rights, labour and environmental protection issues. Among the procedural aspects, dispute settlement between the host State and the investor will be most prominent. This will include the law and practice under such instruments as the ICSID Convention, bilateral investment treaties, the NAFTA, the Energy Charter Treaty and other regional arrangements. The specific topics to be studied will be co-ordinated with Committees on international trade law, international commercial arbitration and monetary law.

So far the Committee has convened on 17 April 2004 in London, on 17 August 2004 in Berlin and on 28 September inPrague, the main purposes being to develop a work plan and prepare a joint publication. The work plan, as adopted, was presented and discussed at a public workshop taking place on 17 August 2004.

UPDATE: Committee members have agreed to submit papers to the rapporteurs, which will serve as input for their reports and at the same time constitute contributions to a collective publication of the Committee. The rapporteurs have divided the work so that Professor Muchlinski is responsible for substantive issues and Dr Asouzu for procedural issues. In preparing their papers, Committee members cooperate, and it is the intention that comments are received both from designated commentators and from the Committee at large. The collective publication will be edited by the chairman, Professor Schreuer, and by the two rapporteurs. It will consist of articles by identified authors. It is planned to appear in 2006.

- Acconci, Pia, The Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment and International Law on Foreign Investment (PDF 602Kb)

- Balas, Vladimir: Possiblity of Arbitral Award Review in Investment DisputesI (PDF 182Kb)

- Bjorklund, Andrea K., Emergency Exceptions to International Obligations in the Realm of Foreign Investment: The State of Necessity as a Circumstance Precluding Wrongfulness (PDF 198Kb)

- Gomez-Palacio, Ignacio, Admission of Investment and Right of Establishment (PDF 233Kb)

- Hirsch, Moshe, Interactions between Investment and Non-Investment Obligations in International Investment Law (PDF 177b)

- Hober, Kaj: State Responsibility and Investment Arbitration (PDF 135Kb)

- Kotera A., Transparency and Investment Agreements PDF 136Kb)

- Malintoppi, Loretta: Independence, Impartiality and Duty of Disclosure in Investment Arbitration (PDF 235Kb)

- Muchlinski, Peter: Policy Issues (PDF 213Kb)

- Reinisch, August and Loretta Malintoppi, Methods of Dispute Resolution (PDF 217Kb)

- Reinisch, August: Expropriation (PDF 523Kb)

- Schlemmer, E.C., Investment, Investor, Nationality, Shareholders and Foreign Investment Law (PDF 260Kb)

- Schreuer, Christoph: Consent to Arbitration (PDF 223Kb)

- Spiermann, Ole: Applicable law (PDF 205Kb)

- Walde, Thomas W. and Borzu Sabahi, Compensation and Damages in International Investment Law(PDF 354Kb)

- Weiler, Todd Grierson: Of Waterfowl and Unified Standards of Regulatory Treatment(PDF 862Kb)

- Weiss, F., Trade and Investment Governance: From Parallel Action Towards Global Integration?(PDF 133Kb)

- Ziegler, Andreas R.: Investment Guarantee: From a National to an International Perspective (PDF 170Kb)

It is the aim of the Committee to have an interim report ready by May 2006 for presentation at the Toronto Conference in the summer 2006. It is the hope of the Committee that a final report will be completed by May 2007. It is likely that the final report will take the form of guidelines plus commentary involving normative language, although a formal decision has yet to be taken as to the form. It is possible that the Committee will recommend to the Executive Council that its work be continued within more specific fields.