Decentralized smart sanctions are ever more used, e.g. against Russia. This enforcement system in international law may come into conflict with investment protection law (in contrast to UN sanctions). This Perspective explores under what factual circumstances and legal assumptions this may be...

Inspired by the UN General Principles of Business and Human Rights and based on the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, this Perspective discusses the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration and how they fill existing gaps in (access to) remedies for victims and help businesses fulfil human...

The question of why states comply with international law has long been at the forefront of international law and international relations scholarship. The compliance discussion has largely focused on negative incentives for states to comply. We argue that there is another, undertheorized...

International investment law creates an international level of review for (illegal) national regulations and laws and the conduct of administrative entities for foreign investors. It is state liability law for foreign investors. In the municipal legal orders, the law of available remedies...

International Election Monitoring has become ever more important in the national as well as the international context. Plenty of (regional) International Organizations (and NGOs) send Election Observers Missions (EOMs) to countries in order to assess the quality of their democratic process and...

The pros and cons of stricter disclosure rules for parliamentarians are hotly debated. Some argue that disclosure rules for parliamentarians increase transparency of the legislative branch, leading to lower levels of rent-seeking and corruption, increased citizen trust in parliament, and better...

This article analyzes international investment protection law by using tools of economic contract theory. Contract theory has been applied to international trade law, but investment law has not yet been analyzed under this methodology. International Investment Agreements may be interpreted as a...

It is hypothesized that prosecution agencies that are dependent on the executive have less incentives to prosecute crimes committed by government members which, in turn, increases their incentives to commit such crimes. Here, this hypothesis is put to an empirical test focusing on a particular...

In late 2008, as financial markets were crashing, the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment launched the Columbia FDI Perspectives. The first Perspective, entitled “The FDI recession has begun,” correctly forecast an FDI recession in the following year. From that first...

Different methodological approaches to international law abound. Recently the rationalist, game-theoretical approach in the law and economics tradition has gained much prominence, certainly so in the United States. Within this tradition the volume by Professors Goldsmith and Posner purports to...