Syllabus/achievement requirements
Achievement requirements
Knowledge
Students are expected to achieve knowledge of the following topics:
- The history and development of international investment law.
- Main sources, in particular the relationship between arbitral practice, customary law and treaty standards.
- The key concepts and common characteristics of bilateral investment treaties, including in particular the concept of ‘investor’ and ‘investment’.
- The mechanism of investor-state arbitration, including the parallel procedural regimes of the ICSID- and New York conventions, and the main requirements of jurisdiction and enforcement.
- The main substantive standards, particularly the expropriation, fair and equitable treatment, national treatment and most favoured nation treatment, and their relationship to customary international law.
- Regulatory exceptions and principles, such as the notions of police powers and the right to regulate.
- The role and significance of general principles of state responsibility.
- Effects of investor-state contracts, and comparable contractual or license/concession arrangements entered into by states directly with foreign investors, under international law.
- Key legitimacy and policy issues, including responsibilities of foreign investors: the role of human rights, labour standards and environmental concerns;
- Main procedural concerns and developments in the arbitral system.
Skills
- Analyse and identify the relevant legal issues in complex factual matters concerning government treatment of foreign investors and investment
- Be able to find the applicable source material, and identify and interpret the relevant substantive rules and principles, in a concrete dispute between a state and a foreign investor
- Know the main risks and propose legal solutions in cases of planned investments of private companies in foreign countries
- Be able to critically evaluate existing treaties, rules and practices for protection of foreign investment in the light of relevant concerns
General competence
- Be able to perform relevant legal work in law firms, companies, organizations and government institutions relating to foreign investment
- Develop an understanding of the main interests and concerns relating to protection of foreign investors and investment under international law
- Get an understanding of the dynamic development of a specific field of international law on the basis of relevant concerns and interests
Literature
The following constitutes the required reading for the course. In addition a course schedule will also be published, containing recommended additional reading and case law in respect of each lecture.
Book
Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer, International Investment Law: Text, Cases and Materials (2nd edn. 2016) (a new 3rd edition is expected in 2020), except sections 2.1-2.2 and chapter 7
572 pages
Published Nov. 20, 2019 3:55 PM
- Last modified Nov. 20, 2019 3:55 PM