Investment has become increasingly important in shaping the economic landscape in Asia. In recent years, there has been a burgeoning number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters incorporated into bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) in China. The rapid...

An “ethics explosion” is emerging in the international investment arena in many different ways. Along with the EU’s strong desire to regulate the ethical aspects of adjudicators’ duties in its latest generation of IIAs, whether already in force or still under negotiation, a growing...

The European Union (EU) and India are currently negotiating a bilateral broad-based trade and investment agreement (BTIA). The on-going debate is to whether the EU-India BTIA will be a deep-integration or shallow-integration agreement. This study will identify the key issues that will be...

In some countries an IP owner’s attempts to defend or enforce its IP rights in a conventional way may face difficulties, particularly if the country’s judiciary is not able to effectively render justice since it lacks the necessary resources, if the courts are subject to interventions by the...

This paper reviews the relationship between international investment agreements (IIAs) and foreign direct investment (FDI). It is organised in two parts. The first part explores the generic structure of IIAs and highlights the components that are particularly relevant to FDI. It then gives an...

Investor-state dispute-settlement (ISDS) clauses give multinational investors (corporations) a right to sue a state in a binding proceeding before an independent arbitration tribunal. This jurisgenerative right to file a claim in an international tribunal with mandatory jurisdiction is generally...

Over the years, the substantive content of international investment agreements (IIAs) has shifted to reflect political change and to respond to lessons learnt in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). With a focus on eight IIAs, selected with a view to geographical representativeness, this...

International investment law is undergoing a time of reflection, review and revision. Increasing dissatisfaction with the functioning of the current system that governs the protection of international investment and the wish to ensure that investment is channelled towards sustainable development...

Over the last few years, the right to regulate has evolved from a rather inconspicuous, mistrusted concept to a necessary component of international investment agreements. This brief study offers a complementary account of the right to regulate compared to the author’s treatment of the topic a...