Foreign investment is perceived as one of the most significant factors for development and it is no accident that a key criterion for determining that an activity qualifies as an investment under the ICSID Convention is whether it contributes to the economic or other development of the host...

While the debate about the needs and merits of cryptocurrency regulation is ongoing, the unprecedented price hikes of cryptocurrencies towards the end of 2017 triggered a somewhat unexpected sort of regulation in the form of public statements by governments and financial supervisors. It kicked...

Corona bonds are feasible and important to preserve the European project. We set out a number of principles that might serve as a blueprint for the European institutions. Importantly, Corona bonds could be issued through a new public law entity and include all the safeguards required for the...

This policy note summarizes our assessment of financial sanctions against Russia. We see an increase in sanctions severity starting from (1) the widely discussed SWIFT exclusions, followed by (2) blocking of correspondent banking relationships with Russian banks, including the Central Bank,...

Recently, a growing amount of data suggests that there is an intricate relationship between sovereign debt and civil unrest. This article proposes that the powers of the UN Security Council, and in particular its experience with the imposition of sanctions, should be used in order to restructure...

This article analyzes to what extent international, regional and national efforts to solve the civil war in Sierra Leone as well as to bring along post-conflict justice have been competing with, or supportive of each other. It argues that the legal frameworks of these missions and institutions...

In this paper, we study the role of law for squaring democracy with a market-based financial order. We approach this issue on the basis of Jürgen Habermas’ discourse theoretical understanding of the role of law in the welfare state. Accordingly, law needs to be enforceable; law-making and...

The dominant understanding of the role of human rights in the context of austerity induced by sovereign debt crises has shifted markedly over time. It reflects, and may have influenced, the genealogies of human rights law in the postwar era. Four different paradigms emerge. During the 1970s, the...

This article argues that WTO dispute settlement should address distortions of international trade law caused by contemporary state capitalism by controlling domestic measures for their compatibility with the object and purpose of the WTO. The article begins by examining EU countermeasures...