This article explores the evolutive nature of Sino-African relations and questions how Chinese interventions may influence Africa’s development stories in a post-Covid world. We examine whether the crisis could serve as a catalyst for reorienting the strategic partnership between China and...

Since the Argentine financial crisis of 2001-2002, bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) have increasingly come under the spotlight as a means by which foreign investors can enforce their rights against the host State of their investment. These rights come in the form of various substantive...

One of the most remarkable phenomena in international law during the past fifteen years has been the extraordinary increase in the number of agreements concluded relating to the protection or liberalization of foreign investment. More than 2500 such agreements now exist, with the great majority...

The Apotex v USA tribunal decisions regarding Sertraline and Pravastatin ANDAs have attracted scant indepth analysis, as to their ultimate effect on the treatment of intangible asset categories in investment arbitration. The Tribunal's decision in the final Apotex Inc. claim (2012) employed res...

The China–Australia Free Trade Agreement (‘ChAFTA') reflects the latest development of trade and investment rules in regional economic integration and is of significance to the future development of the international economic legal order. Through a critical analysis of the major ChAFTA rules...

Many similarities and occasional differences are evident in New Zealand (as explained in Part 2) and Australia (Part 3) concerning their laws screening foreign direct investment (FDI) and current approaches towards investment treaties, including the now politically sensitive issue of...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement was signed in February 2016 by 12 Asia-Pacific economies that already account for 40% of world GDP, including the United States, Japan and Australia. If ratified, economists model significant economic growth prospects, especially for smaller and/or...

This paper outlines the historical evolution of Australia's foreign direct investment (FDI) regulation generally, under national law and more recently bilateral investment treaties (BITs) or investment chapters of free trade agreements (FTAs). This sets the stage for closer analysis of the...

As in some developing countries and more recently some developed countries worldwide and in the Asian region, Australia has faced significant internal opposition and public debate especially over treaty-based investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). As outlined in Part II(1), concerns have...

This paper is written in the context of the unravelling policy debate on Investor-State Dispute Settlement in Australia, which has become central in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. Deviating from the widely accepted international practice of resolving investment disputes through...