Content Type: Policy Brief / Publishing Institution: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment / Political Geography: Canada / Topic: Markets

Author:: Sandy Walker
Publication Date:: 08-2012
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: In its World Investment Report 2011, UNCTAD reported that liberalizing investment policy measures taken globally in 2010 outnumbered restrictive measures. Without the benefit of statistics, investors might have drawn the opposite conclusion, witnessing what appears to be a rising tide of national resistance to foreign takeovers: the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board's rejection of a takeover of the Australian Securities Exchange by the Singapore Exchange, Italian concern over a French company's takeover of dairy giant Parmalat and the US Government's requirement that Chinese company Huawei divest certain assets it had acquired from 3Leaf.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: United States, China, Canada, Australia, and Singapore

Author:: Stephan W. Schill
Publication Date:: 01-2012
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:: At the heart of the so-called “legitimacy crisis” of international investment law, prominently reflected in the Public Statement on the International Investment Regime, is what I call the public law challenge. It builds on the observation that one-off appointed arbitrators, instead of standing courts, review government acts and reach far into the sphere of domestic public law by crafting and refining the standards governing in vestor-state relations. Arbitrations against Uruguay and Australia concerning cigarette packaging are the most recent examples of genuinely public law disputes now settled in arbitration. The disputes about Argentina's emergency legislation and Canada's ban on pesticide s are others. These arbitrations create friction with domestic public law as arbitrators, having little democratic legitimacy, often operate in non-transparent proceedings and produce increasing amounts of incoherent decisions.
Topic:: Economics, International Law, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: Canada, Argentina, and Australia

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