The relationship between the bilateral investment treaty (‘BIT') between Australia and China (1988) and the preferential trade agreement between those countries (‘ChAFTA') (2015) provides an interesting case study of the co-existence of successive treaties under public international law....

International trade and international investment agreements typically contain provisions requiring the parties to comply with good governance principles, such as procedural fairness and transparency. These provisions are increasingly the subject of disputes before international tribunals. The...

Chapters relating to regulatory coherence or cooperation are becoming significant features in new preferential trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While the existing literature has considered in detail the potential for harmonisation of standards or institutional...

Our submission is focussed on how Australia’s BITs can be modernised to ensure that the promotion and protection of investments is balanced against the need to safeguard policy space for legitimate public-welfare measures or ‘regulatory autonomy’. This discussion responds primarily to...

Commitments to facilitate climate friendly FDI increasingly feature in investment facilitation agreements, in broader trade agreements and in non-binding green economy agreements. This Perspective argues that commitments for ongoing cooperation, which identify shared priorities and establish...

Since the adoption of the World Health Organization’s WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, governments have been pursuing progressively stronger and more wide-reaching tobacco control measures. In response, tobacco companies are frequently using international trade and investment...