The starting point of this chapter is that investment law partly borrows and partly diverges from pre-existing regimes of international law, and an interpreter of an investment protection treaty is required to determine the degree of similarity and difference so as to elaborate the ordinary...

The laws of territorial sovereignty are among the earliest to have been developed in modern international law, and are among the most important. While this would seem to indicate the potential attractiveness of normative economic analyses of the laws of territorial sovereignty, there is...

This article explores the accepted and emerging international law principles applicable to the resolution of sovereign debt crises. The need for agreement on a set of guiding principles and mechanisms for resolving such crises is highlighted. The history of debt moratoriums, exchange controls...

This essay addresses the need to redefine current notions of sovereignty. It returns to earlier concepts of subjects joining to receive the benefits of peace and security provided by the sovereign. It diverges from most contemporary commentary by avoiding what has become traditional second-tier...

This book discusses developments in international law and their relationship to national legal systems. The introduction of the book notes that countries who received their independence from authoritarian regimes are more receptive to international law. A country may adopt either a monist...

Adopting the view that a more active participation of indigenous peoples in the trade of their knowledge assets would promote their socioeconomic development raises difficult questions of legitimacy and method. Questions of legitimacy are posed by the potentially modernizing effects of...

The question of the existence of legal protection for foreign investors under customary international law (or “custom”) has always been controversial. As a result of this perceived lack of established customary principles, States concluded thousands of bilateral investment treaties in the...

This paper examines the phenomenon of diffusion of responsibility from a political economy perspective. It argues that concerted actions that lead to harmful outcomes may trigger a diffusion of responsibility between States, international organisations (IOs) and other actors involved in the...

As a new international economic policy, microtrade will face a whole host of issues, including potential legal cultural obstacles. Those legal cultural issues will arise as a result of the different and sometimes conflicting legal cultures of the varied participants within the different fora and...