Public Participation and Foreign Investment Law critically discusses the different forms of public participation that can be found or envisaged in foreign investment law. It provides the first systematic treatment of public participation in foreign investment law in its main forms and from different perspectives.

This open access book focuses on public actors with a role in the settlement of investment disputes. Traditional studies on actors in international investment law have tended to concentrate on arbitrators, claimant investors and respondent states. Yet this focus on the "principal" players in investment dispute settlement has allowed a number of other seminal actors to be neglected. This book seeks to redress this imbalance by turning the spotlight on the latter. From the investor's home state to domestic courts, from sub-national governments to international organisations, and from political risk insurance agencies to legal defence teams in national ministries, the book critically reviews these overlooked public actors in international investment law.

This paper examines how environmental guidelines in international investment law instruments implement public participation as a means of assessing the environmental risk in an investment project. The paper first explores international development banks, including the World Bank group and various regional development banks which have included environmental assessment as a condition of financing for foreign direct investment in the developing world. Secondly, it considers the relatively weak regime of environmental assessment that appears in bilateral investment treaties. More comprehensive rules mandating public participation in advance of establishment as a feature of bilateral investment treaties is recommended. This could be achieved without violating national treatment commitments through an overall transparency requirement, or as a pre-condition to accessing advantageous dispute settlement provisions.

Increasingly, transnational corporations, developed countries and private actors are broadening the boundaries of their investments into new territories, in search of a higher return on capital. This growth in direct foreign investment involves serious concerns for both the investor and host state. Various exponents of international civil society and non-governmental organisations persuasively claim that such growth in foreign investments constitutes potential and serious hazards both to the environment and the fundamental rights and freedoms of local populations. This book explores from an international law perspective the complex relationship between foreign investments and common concerns, i.e. values that do not coincide, or do not necessarily coincide, with the interests of the investor and of the host state. It pays particular attention to the role of the main international development banks in reconciling the needs of foreign investors with the protection of common concerns, such as the environment, human rights and labour rights. Among its collection of essays, the volume asks how much "regulatory space" investment law leaves; whether international investment law is an effective means of balancing contrasting interests, and whether investment arbitration currently constitutes a mechanism of global governance. In collecting the outlooks of various experts in human rights, environmental and international economic law, this book breaks new ground in exploring how attention to its legal aspects may help in navigating the relationship between foreign investment and common concerns. In doing so, the book provides valuable insights into the substantive issues and institutional aspects of international investment law.

Are conflicts between the old capitalists and new money manifest in todays economy? Are investment treaties, which have traditionally been used to protect capital exporting states, now beginning to cause unwelcome side effects for them? International investment law has long been held as an economic and political instrument in the regime of international investment, with international investment treaties having been concluded to protect foreign investment and investors for a substantial period of time. However, the emerging new economic powers from the Third World are causing this to change. Taking the unique perspective of environmental protection in host states against states obligations to protect and promote foreign investments under the existing international investment treaty practice and dispute settlement practices, this book examines this inescapable conflict. This is the first major work in this field to interpret investment treaty provisions by introducing environmental reflection. It offers proposals for rethinking and reshaping the current pro-investor international investment law through taking up broad environmental exceptions.

What makes investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) as dynamic a field as it is – especially in comparison with international commercial arbitration – is its uncanny ability to engage directly with the most topical and pressing issues of the day, including human rights, regulation of the energy sector, and climate change and the environment more generally. This book provides a deep dive into the reality behind the causes and effects of the expressed concerns regarding ISDS and the extent to which they can and have been addressed by ongoing reform processes at national, regional, and international levels. Deeply informed insights from leading scholars and practitioners on the status quo and perspectives of ISDS shed clear light on such aspects as the following: reform instruments adopted at the UNCITRAL Working Group III; issues surrounding the legitimacy of ISDS; dispute prevention and amicable settlement mechanisms; the proposed multilateral investment court; implications of climate change and energy transition for investment policies and disputes; recent regional trends in policymaking and perspectives; the ICSID-UNCITRAL Code of Conduct; investment protection standards and dispute resolution mechanisms in recent international investment treaties; viability of the modernized Energy Charter Treaty; use of artificial intelligence; and participation of civil society organizations. As an in-depth analysis of the most recent developments in international investment law and dispute resolution, this book offers a realistic view of the reform processes, thus underlining the necessary legal and institutional measures that will translate into real-life effects in the future. With its help, policymakers and government officials will identify ongoing trends and anticipate risks that require intervention, while practitioners and the broader dispute resolution community will find valuable information about the evolving contours of investment protection treaties and ISDS. For academics and civil society organizations interested in the developments and implications of ISDS, the book provides factual, nuanced, and effective analysis of the relevant issues.

Concise introduction to the dynamic field of international investment law which sets out the key legal concepts and engages with current debates.

This book will discuss the legal tools offered by international law that can support foreign direct investment (FDI) in the renewable energy sector in the Global South. Promoting and increasing investment in the renewable energy sector is crucial for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C and addressing energy poverty in the Global South. In this volume, Avidan Kent explores the various home-country measures (HCMs) offered by international law that support FDI in the renewable energy sector. This book provides a bird’s eye evaluation of HCMs from fields such as trade law, investment law, environmental law, development law and more. It reveals that while international law indeed offers many legal tools to support investors’ needs, the current legal framework is fragmented; most legal instruments were designed in isolation and the potential for mutually supportive, synergetic policies has been explored only to a limited extent. This fragmented reality is in contradiction to the notion of Policy Coherence for Development, which is increasingly gaining support in leading institutions in Europe and elsewhere. This book will provide recommendations on the manner in which HCMs can be connected in order to maximise their potential and boost investment in renewable energies in the developing world. International Law and Renewable Energy Investment in the Global South will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners of international law, energy studies, development studies and IR more broadly.

This book presents the first critical review of the less frequently addressed stakeholders in international investment law. Focusing on private actors, including but not limited to lawyers, experts, funders, civil society, the media and scholars, the book highlights the variety of actors that help shape international investment law and demonstrates how best to manage their interactions in order to achieve synergies and enhance the legitimacy of this pluralistic field.

Energy projects in Latin America are a major contributor to economic growth worldwide. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of specific issues arising from energy and natural resources contracts and disputes in the region, covering a wide range of procedural, substantive, and socio-legal issues. The book also includes how states have shifted from passive business partners to more active controlling players. The book contains an extensive treatment and examination of the particularities of arbitration practice in Latin America, including arbitrability, public order, enforcement, and the complex public-private nature of energy transactions. Specialists experienced in resolving international energy and natural disputes throughout the region provide detailed analysis of such issues and topics, including: state-owned entities as co-investors or contracting parties; role of environmental law, indigenous rights and public participation; issues related to political changes, corruption, and quantification of damages; climate change, renewable energy, and the energy transition; force majeure, hardship, and price reopeners; arbitration in the electricity sector; take-or-pay contracts; recognition and enforcement of awards; tension between stabilization clauses and human rights; mediation as a method for dispute settlement in the energy and natural resources sector; and different comparative approaches taken by national courts in key Latin American jurisdictions. The book also delivers a clear explanation on the impact made to the arbitration process by Covid-19, emerging laws, changes of political circumstances, the economic global trends in the oil & gas market, the energy transition, and the rise of new technologies. This invaluable book will be welcomed by in-house lawyers, government officials, as well as academics and rest of the arbitration community involved in international arbitration with particular interest in the energy and natural resources sector.