The discussion in this paper elaborates a tiered set of reforms designed to (1) protect foreign investment, while (2) affording appropriate policy space for governments to develop and regulate their economies in a sustainable manner and (3) ensuring equitable governance of investment disputes...

This article discusses the development and main contributions of NAFTA to international investment law in the last fifteen years. After analyzing the context of the negotiations, the article examines the contributions of NAFTA to the substantive law applicable to foreign investors. The paper...

This paper addresses treaty-based investor-state arbitration (ISA) and other forms of investor-state dispute settlement. The topic has become particularly controversial for Australia, given its ongoing Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Japan – which is also considering joining...

The North American Free Trade Agreement (‘NAFTA' or ‘the Agreement'), ratified in 1994, is the first free trade agreement to openly incorporate environmental provisions. Its ratification engendered a sustained debate on the effects of trade on environmental degradation that has hardly abated...

The EU is about to conclude an FTA with Canada (CETA) which includes an investment chapter. A similar free trade agreement (FTA) will soon be concluded by the EU with Singapore and India. Moreover, the EU has obtained a negotiation mandate to conclude an FTA with Japan; very soon FTA with the US...

To say that regionalism is gaining momentum is an understatement. To mourn the lack of progress in multilateral trade rule-making is a commonplace in the discourse of politicians regretting the WTO negotiation standstill, and of “know-it-all” academics. The real problem is the uneven playing...