With the bilingual volume International Investment Law in Latin America: Problems and Prospects, Attila Tanzi, Alessandra Asteriti, Rodrigo Polanco Lazo and Paolo Turrini provide a regional perspective on one of the liveliest branches of international law by situating it in one of the most dynamic areas of the world. Latin America has always had an ambivalent relationship with international investment law and, more recently, it has been the home of harsh and resolute criticisms, questioning the ultimate legitimacy of the regime. By bringing together distinguished scholars of this legal field, the volume analyses ongoing trends and draws lessons from the Continent’s past experiences while identifying possible solutions to the important challenges it faces. Con el volumen bilingüe Derecho Internacional de las Inversiones en América Latina: Problemas y Perspectivas, Attila Tanzi, Alessandra Asteriti, Rodrigo Polanco Lazo y Paolo Turrini tienen por objetivo proporcionar una perspectiva regional para una de las ramas más vigorosas del derecho internacional, situándola en una de las áreas más dinámicas del mundo. Latinoamérica siempre ha tenido una relación ambivalente con el derecho internacional de inversiones y, más recientemente, ha sido el hogar de duras y decididas críticas en su contra, cuestionando la legitimidad última del régimen. Al reunir a distinguidos estudiosos de este campo legal, tanto de América Latina como de fuera de la región, este volumen analiza esta actual tendencia, extrayendo lecciones de las experiencias pasadas del continente e identificando posibles soluciones a los desafíos importantes que ahora enfrenta.

Zusammenfassung: The book brings to light how Latin American states have traditionally stood before the field of International Investment Law and Arbitration. It delves into their posture of resistance to critically examine how their perspective has gradually changed and how they have adapted and molded their investment agreements so as not to leave their position as players in the field of International Investment Law. Many Latin American states have appeared as defendants before international investment tribunals and some of these, like Venezuela, Bolivia or Ecuador, have denounced their international investment agreements. Deeming the law field as imbalanced, they have looked for alternatives to continue providing legal protection to foreign investors while protecting their right to regulate in the name of public interest. Some interesting investment agreements models, sometimes of a different ilk, have consequently flourished and have arrested the attention of those studying or working with international investment law. The main objective of this book is to critically discuss how Latin American states have accepted, resisted, or adapted themselves to international investment law and arbitration. Accordingly, the general connection between these states and international investment law are explained in an introduction which examines the general trends as per which Latin American states have offered a legal protection to foreign investments. The first part enters the merits of where international investment law and arbitration stand in some Latin American states whereby the experience of Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Uruguay are discussed. The following parts explain the trends in international investment law and arbitration in Latin America. These trends are namely related to dispute settlement and governance, to the connection between investment law and human rights and finally to regionalization. In these parts, the experience of states like Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico are perused

This book offers insights into how international investment law (IIL) has frustrated states’ protection of human rights in Latin America, and IIL has generally abstained from dealing with inter-regime frictions. In these circumstances, this study not only argues that IIL should be an object of contention and debate (‘politicisation’). It also contends that Latin American countries have traditionally been the frontrunners in the politicisation of international legal instruments protecting foreign investment, questioning whether the paradigms informing their claims’ articulation are adequate to frame this debate. It demonstrates that the so-called ‘right to regulate’ is the paradigm now prevalently used to challenge IIL, but that it is inadequate from a human rights perspective. Hence, the book calls for a re-politicisation of IIL in Latin America through a re-conceptualization of how states’ regulation of foreign investment is understood under international human rights law, which entails viewing it as an international duty. After determining what the ‘duty to regulate’ constitutes in relation to the right to water and indigenous peoples’ right to lands based on human rights doctrine, the book analyses the extent to which Latin American countries are currently re-politicising IIL through an articulation of this international duty, and arbitral tribunals’ responses to their argumentative strategies. Based on these findings, the book not only proposes investment treaties’ reform to anchor the ‘duty to regulate’ paradigm in IIL, and in the process, to induce tribunals’ engagement with human rights arguments when they come to underpin respondent states’ defences in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). In addition, drawing upon the (now likely defunct) idea of creating a regional ISDS tribunal, the book briefly reflects on options available to such a tribunal in terms of dealing with troubling normative/institutional interactions between regimes during ISDS proceedings.

Latin America has been a complex laboratory for the development of international investment law. While some governments and non-state actors have remained true to the Latin American tradition of resistance towards the international investment law regime, other governments and actors have sought to accommodate said regime in the region. Consequently, a profusion of theories and doctrines, too often embedded in clashing narratives, has emerged. In Latin America, the practice of international investment law is the vivid amalgamation of the practice of governments sometimes resisting and sometimes welcoming mainstream approaches; the practice of lawyers assisting foreign investors from outside and within the region; and the practice of civil society, indigenous peoples and other actors in their struggle for human rights and sustainable development. Latin America and international investment law describes the complex roles that governments have played vis-à-vis foreign investors and investments; the refreshing but clashing forces that international organizations, corporations, civil society, and indigenous peoples have brought to the field; and the contribution that Latin America has made to the development of the theory and practice of international investment law, notably in fields in which the Latin American experience has been traumatic: human rights and sustainable development. Latin American scholars have been contributing to the theory of international investment law for over a century; resting on the shoulders of true giants, this volume aims at pushing this contribution a little further.

This book shows how the current reform in investment regulation is part of a broader attempt to transform the international economic order. Countries in the North and South are currently rethinking how economic order should be constituted in order to advance their national interests and preferred economic orientation. While some countries in the North seek to create alternative institutional spaces in order to promote neoliberal policies more effectively, some countries in the South are increasingly skeptical of this version of economic order and are experimenting with alternative versions of legal ordering that do not always sit well with mainstream versions promoted by the North. While we recognize that there are differences in approaches to the investment regimes proposed by countries in the South, we identify commonalities that could function as the founding pillars of an alternative economic order.

Written by leading experts in the field, this collection offers a critical and comparative analysis of the existing case law on international investment law. The book makes a topical contribution to the existing literature, showing most notably that: (1) international investment law has a longer history than that generally considered and that this history is fundamental to understanding its development; (2) international investment law is crafted today by a large number of actors. These include not only investment arbitrators, but also a variety of international and national courts and tribunals; and (3) the literature and case law in languages other than English and from different legal cultures is essential to grasp the essence of the development of the topic. This book brings together more than 40 experts from different countries and legal traditions and combines conceptual analysis and archival investigation of landmark case law to provide the reader with a fresh and innovative understanding of the breadth of international investment law.

The interplay between human rights and investments is a key and complex issue in today’s world. To take stock of this importance and to tackle this complexity, this Research Handbook offers a unique multi-faceted approach. It gathers in-depth contributions which focus on the interplay between human rights and investments in various international legal regimes, economic sectors and regions. It also provides thorough analyses of the various types of accountability that may result from the activities of multinational corporations in relation to human rights. This Research Handbook is intended for practitioners, policy-makers, academics and students eager to understand the interaction between human rights and investments in all its dimensions.​

This book outlines the protection standards typically contained in international investment agreements as they are actually applied and interpreted by investment tribunals. It thus provides a basis for analysis, criticism, and stocktaking of the existing system of investment arbitration. It covers all main protection standards, such as expropriation, fair and equitable treatment, full protection and security, the non-discrimination standards of national treatment and MFN, the prohibition of unreasonable and discriminatory measures, umbrella clauses and transfer guarantees. These standards are covered in separate chapters providing an overview of textual variations, explaining the origin of the standards and analysing the main conceptual issues as developed by investment tribunals. Relevant cases with quotations that illustrate how tribunals have relied upon the standards are presented in depth. An extensive bibliography guides the reader to more specific aspects of each investment standard permitting the book's use as a commentary of the main investment protection standards.

The post-Cold War era has seen an unprecedented move towards more legalization in international cooperation and a growth of third-party dispute settlement systems. WTO panels, the Appellate Body and investor-state dispute settlement cases have received increasing attention beyond the core trade and investment constituencies within governments. Scrutiny by business, civil society, academia, and trade and investment experts has been on the rise. This book asks whether we observe a transformation or a demise of existing institutions and mechanisms to adjudicate disputes over trade or investment. It makes a contribution to the question in which direction international economic dispute settlement is heading in times of change, uncertainty and increasing economic nationalism. In order to do so, it brings together chapters written by leading researchers and experts in law and political science to address the challenges of settling disputes in the global economy and to sketch possible scenarios ahead of us.

This multi-disciplinary publication focuses on the issue of African sovereign debt management and renegotiation/ restructuring, with a particular concentration on the countries that are members of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). It contains a series of essays that were initially presented in several workshops held at the height of the pandemic, in 2020. These essays seek to both understand the debt challenges facing these countries and to offer some policy-oriented suggestions on how they can more effectively address these. They include contributions by global and regional scholars who are seasoned experts and newer researchers and discuss the complexities on debt management and restructuring within the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this presented an opportunity for junior researchers from the region to contribute to international discussions on a topic in which the views of young Africans are not heard as often or as clearly as they should be, especially given the importance of the topic to Africa and its future. Further, this book is expected to stimulate debate among academics, activists, policy makers and practitioners on how SADC should manage its debt.