Using data on cross border transactions together with an informative measure of financing constraints this paper provides new evidence that limited access to external capital narrows the scale of foreign sales, the exporters' product scope and the number of trade partners. It shows that...

Investment treaties entitle foreign investors to compensation for certain classes of loss caused by a host State. Several recent papers have considered the economics of investment treaty protection. They have generally concluded that the economic justifications for such legal protection are...

The panel and the Appellate Body have recently examined one of the national tobacco control measures (US – Measures Affecting the Productions and Sale of Clove Cigarettes). The dispute, which emerged between the United States and Indonesia, concerned the US ban on the use of certain flavouring...

State capitalism is reemerging today. Some governments, notably newly emerging economies such as China and Russia and oil producing countries in the Middle East are placing much emphasis on state-led economic development, and they are making much use of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to achieve...

On-going discussions on food security as both an element of the right to food and a goal for agricultural policy focus on the situation of the respective rights holders and the corresponding duty-bearers, i.e. individuals and the state. Yet, the coincidence of the recent food crisis and the...

China is a major recipient of foreign investment and has become a major investor internationally. Its active participation in international treaties relating to investment, in the form of bilateral investment treaties and, more recently, free trade agreements, when combined with the outward push...

The backlash against the expansive interpretation of key disciplines of international investment law by arbitral tribunals has prompted a host of strategies, implemented mostly by developing countries, aimed at walking away from the system. These range from denouncing the ICSID Convention and...

In this paper, I highlight that international investment law, as a subsystem, should evolve to accept rules from other subsystems of law, e.g., human rights, trade (WTO law and RTA law), and environmental. This proposed evolution would need to include the acceptance of new tools that would help...

This paper takes an empirical, practical approach to test the proposition that systemic integration leads to greater coherence of international law. It builds on work by Professor Campbell McLachlan and others that specific treaty-based regimes can be located in the broader context of...

This presentation considers the prospective development of policy frameworks for foreign direct investment in developing and emerging economies. It first considers the implications of two decisions on FDI in South Africa and the extent to which they dealt with potential inconsistencies between...