This course introduces students to the international law governing foreign direct investment. International investment law regulates what States can do to restrict the flow of investment into their market, and imposes standards for the treatment of foreign investors and investments once an investment has been made. The course will delve into an array of topics revealing the richness of international investment law from the perspective of both the academic and practitioner. These include: - Historical underpinnings and sources of law at the heart of the international investment law regime; - Core substantive investment obligations -- non-discrimination, expropriation, minimum standard of treatment, performance requirements, transfers; - The approach States take in their treaty practice to reserve the policy flexibility required to regulate in the public interest (reservations and exceptions), and limitations to same; - The interplay between international investment law and domestic law, and between the various international investment law treaties to which Canada is a Party; - Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) practice and procedure, with specific focus on issues of remedies and enforcement; - How States go about terminating investment obligations; - Criticism and perceived shortcomings of the international investment law regime and ISDS, current efforts at reform, and how this area of law may evolve. The course will aim to illuminate the above topics through examples provided by the many free trade agreements and investment treaties that Canada has negotiated, and the even greater number of investment arbitration claims that it has defended, over the past twenty-five years. Classes will be conducted in a seminar format, with a lecture followed by discussion, debate, and an exchange of ideas on the issues that we address each week.
This course introduces students to the international law governing foreign direct investment. International investment law regulates what States can do to restrict the flow of investment into their market, and imposes standards for the treatment of foreign investors and investments once an investment has been made. The course will delve into an array of topics revealing the richness of international investment law from the perspective of both the academic and practitioner. These include: - Historical underpinnings and sources of law at the heart of the international investment law regime; - Core substantive investment obligations -- non-discrimination, expropriation, minimum standard of treatment, performance requirements, transfers; - The approach States take in their treaty practice to reserve the policy flexibility required to regulate in the public interest (reservations and exceptions), and limitations to same; - The interplay between international investment law and domestic law, and between the various international investment law treaties to which Canada is a Party; - Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) practice and procedure, with specific focus on issues of remedies and enforcement; - How States go about terminating investment obligations; - Criticism and perceived shortcomings of the international investment law regime and ISDS, current efforts at reform, and how this area of law may evolve. The course will aim to illuminate the above topics through examples provided by the many free trade agreements and investment treaties that Canada has negotiated, and the even greater number of investment arbitration claims that it has defended, over the past twenty-five years. Classes will be conducted in a seminar format, with a lecture followed by discussion, debate, and an exchange of ideas on the issues that we address each week.
