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...

The recent stunning failure of banks has put regulatory intervention high on the agenda of governments. Adequate risk monitoring, including by credit rating agencies, as well as measurement and management have proven a daunting task, whereas regulation of innovative financial instruments has not...

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions), adopted on 20 October 2005, has breathed new life into the ‘trade and culture' debate. Witness the fact that several scholars have discussed the...

This paper argues that GSP labour rights conditionality is in conformity with WTO law. This hinges on the critical question of whether the realisation of labour standards can meet a ‘development need,' a term considered by the WTO Appellate Body report in the EC – Tariffs Preferences case,...

It is common to find in the texts of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) around the globe, provisions incorporated mutatis mutandis from the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. The incorporation of a WTO provision under this expression makes it necessary to determine the likely effects of such...

Inspired by knowledge of law and economics and competition law, this paper suggests an integrated framework for understanding economic law as an autonomous discipline. In developing this framework, this paper first assumes economic law to be an independent body of law comprising various branches...

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (“RTAs”) behoves all WTO members to assess the extent to which RTAs depart from fundamental principles in the WTO such as the most-favoured-nation (“MFN”) treatment in the GATT and in particular, the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to...