Magister Legum - LLM

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCOFTA) came into force in August 2011 amidst concerns that the provisions protecting Canadian investment in Colombia could exacerbate the precarious human rights situation. The Agreement concerning Annual Reports on Human Rights and Free Trade between Canada and Colombia was negotiated to address such concerns by enshrining the first ever human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of a free trade and investment agreement (TIA) in an internationally binding instrument. This thesis builds on a growing body of international legal scholarship that has considered the duty of home states of private investors to regulate their activity in the host state so as to prevent them from causing or contributing to human rights and environmental harm. It examines state obligations found in human rights, environmental and general principles of international law to propose that while an obligation might exist for the home state to exercise unilateral regulation of its investors, in the presence of a TIA that could cause or enable private human rights or environmental harm, investor regulation through the TIA can be seen as duty for both the home and host states. In view of the absence of such regulation in the CCOFTA, this thesis will consider if the annual HRIA mechanism is an alternative for preventing human rights and environmental harm caused or enabled by the TIA. It is submitted that while HRIAs of TIAs are a novel concept for which little international practice exists, this mechanism has the capacity to provide concrete evidence of human rights or environmental harm caused or enabled by the TIA, but only if based on a methodological model that uses existing state international human rights law obligations as indicators to measure a change in the human rights situation, draws unequivocal causal links between the investment protection provisions and human rights indicators, and allows for broad public participation, especially from the most marginalized and underrepresented groups in the host state to validate its methodology and findings. While under international law all investment-exporting states might have a duty to conduct HRIA on the effects of a proposed TIA as part of the due diligence to prevent transnational harm, the enshrinement of such assessments in an internationally binding instrument triggers a duty for the home state to, on one hand use the HRIA mechanism to prevent transnational human rights or environmental harm and, on the other hand, structure its annual assessments according to the described model in order to give effect to the duty to prevent. Broad and inclusive participation of the local affected communities from the host state in the HRIA becomes an integral component of the home state duty to prevent that can be expected to reveal any negative effects on the human rights situation from the TIA provisions, as well as the type of action required from both states parties to address them.

Motivation of virtually all regional economic integration (REI) initiatives has been prospect of enhanced economic growth. Although REI's role in contributing to growth and development was recognised and acknowledged, its importance in Africa has never been properly outlined. Theoretical background, economic assumptions and evidence of REI are examined to bring out REI's importance to Africa. Depicting from these, benefits and challenges of REI in Africa are explored. This dissertation analyses the progress, pace, approach, sequence of REI in Africa looking at different variables. Africa's regional integration blueprint and institutional framework are compared to EU's but selected areas are identified as essential for Africa. Progress on REI has been found to be slow. This study concludes that REI should be viewed as one aspect of strategy towards Africa's development and growth. However, the benefits of REI make it imperative for it to remain the central pillar of Africa's development agenda. / Economics / M.Com. (Economics)

The dissertation deals with the topic of the mutual trade balance between the Czech Republic and Japan. The main focus is to find the causes of contemporary state of the mutual trade balance. The dissertation research which factors influence it and which factors will influence it in the future and how will the mutual trade balance probably develop in the future. The partial aim of this thesis is to find the possibilities of a concrete company to enter the Japanese market with reference to the market barriers. The dissertation firstly provides the theoretical information includes the topics of the economical development of Japan, Japanese external trade and also the trade between the Czech Republic and Japan. Then there are analyzed various entry barriers of the Japanese market. All the barriers are considered firstly generally and afterward they are applied on the concrete company, which contemporary thinks to enter the Japanese market. There are also discussed other factors, which are important in regard to entry the Japanese market as is transport, the business risk etc. The next part covers the causes of the contemporary mutual trade balance and the possibilities of its future development and possible equalization. There are analyzed factors, which influence the most the mutual trade balance between the Czech Republic and Japan.

Orientador: Sebastião Carlos Velasco e Cruz / Resumo: O objetivo desta tese é contribuir para a compreensão dos padrões das regras de comércio de serviços propostas e/ou adotadas pelos Estados Unidos no âmbito das negociações comerciais internacionais, verificando se houve mudanças, se houve repetições desses padrões e quais seriam as causas de um resultado ou outro. O comércio de serviços, após uma assertiva estratégia dos negociadores americanos, entrou para a agenda da Rodada Uruguai de Negociações Comerciais Multilaterais do então GATT e chegou como principal tema nas negociações dos grandes acordos preferenciais de comércio – nomeadamente TPP e TTIP – liderados pelos negociadores americanos. Verifica-se que os padrões em referência espelham uma trajetória traçada a partir de uma campanha também agressiva de organizações e outros agentes, liderados especialmente pelo setor de serviços financeiros, em defesa de seus interesses. Tais atores, que foram essenciais no lançamento dessa agenda, continuaram dando sustentação aos acordos comerciais ao longo de todos esses anos, constituindo os maiores demandeurs a favor da liberalização. Entretanto, os negociadores americanos, se por um lado manifestaram total interesse em realizar ganhos com tal liberalização, alinhando-se a esses demandeurs, por outro, viram-se desde o início desafiados por constrangimentos internos e externos. A argumentação central defendida aqui é que as regras de comércio propostas e/ou adotadas pelos Estados Unidos no âmbito das negociações comerciais internac... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Doutor

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No. of bitstreams: 1 bojikian_nmp_dr_mar.pdf: 8781854 bytes, checksum: 59da8bec27bfb91d0edd7ba661e5fd25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo desta tese é contribuir para a compreensão dos padrões das regras de comércio de serviços propostas e/ou adotadas pelos Estados Unidos no âmbito das negociações comerciais internacionais, verificando se houve mudanças, se houve repetições desses padrões e quais seriam as causas de um resultado ou outro. O comércio de serviços, após uma assertiva estratégia dos negociadores americanos, entrou para a agenda da Rodada Uruguai de Negociações Comerciais Multilaterais do então GATT e chegou como principal tema nas negociações dos grandes acordos preferenciais de comércio – nomeadamente TPP e TTIP – liderados pelos negociadores americanos. Verifica-se que os padrões em referência espelham uma trajetória traçada a partir de uma campanha também agressiva de organizações e outros agentes, liderados especialmente pelo setor de serviços financeiros, em defesa de seus interesses. Tais atores, que foram essenciais no lançamento dessa agenda, continuaram dando sustentação aos acordos comerciais ao longo de todos esses anos, constituindo os maiores demandeurs a favor da liberalização. Entretanto, os negociadores americanos, se por um lado manifestaram total interesse em realizar ganhos com tal liberalização, alinhando-se a esses demandeurs, por outro, viram-se desde o início desafiados por constrangimentos internos e externos. A argumentação central defendida aqui é que as regras de comércio propostas e/ou adotadas pelos Estados Unidos no âmbito das negociações comerciais internacionais sobre serviços – especificamente serviços financeiros; serviços de telecomunicações; serviços audiovisuais; serviços de transporte marítimo – no GATS-Rodada Uruguai, mas efetivamente institucionalizadas no NAFTA, em função das circunstâncias adversas enfrentadas pelo México, resultaram das demandas de vários atores privados e públicos e foram moldadas dentro dos limites institucionais existentes. Tal institucionalização, ao mesmo tempo em que caracterizou uma resposta dos negociadores americanos ao padrão institucional que estava sendo adotado no GATSRodada Uruguai, tornou-se um padrão que teve influência recorrente e amplamente determinante nas regras resultantes das negociações envolvendo Estados Unidos que surgiram a partir de então. Tais argumentos estão ancorados nos pressupostos da abordagem analítica institucionalista histórica e nos conceitos path dependence, conjuntura crítica, nos mecanismos feedback positivo, sequenciamento e nos conceitos de transformações graduais, que ajudam a identificar o desenvolvimento institucional. / The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the standards of service trade rules proposed and/or adopted by the United States in the context of international trade negotiations, verifying if there were changes, if there were repetitions of these standards and what would be the causes of a result or another. Trade in services, following an assertive strategy of American negotiators, entered the agenda of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations of the then GATT and came up with as the main topic in the negotiations of the major preferential trade agreements – notably TPP and TTIP – led by the American negotiators. The standards in question reflect a path traced from an aggressive campaign of organizations and other agents, led especially by the financial services sector, in defense of their interests. These actors, who were essential in launching this agenda, continued to support trade agreements throughout all these years, making them the largest demandeurs in favor of liberalization. However, the American negotiators, if on the one hand expressed full interest in making gains from such liberalization, by aligning themselves with these demandeurs, on the other, found themselves challenged from the outset by internal and external constraints. The central argument advocated here is that the trade rules proposed and/or adopted by the United States in the context of international trade negotiations on services – specifically financial services; telecommunication services; audiovisual services; maritime transport services – in the Uruguay Round GATS, but effectively institutionalized in NAFTA, due to the adverse circumstances faced by Mexico, resulted from the demands of several private and public actors and were shaped within the existing institutional limits. Such institutionalization, while that featured a response from the American negotiators to institutional standard that was being adopted in the GATS-Uruguay Round, became a pattern that had recurrent and largely determining influence on the rules resulting from the negotiations involving the United States that emerged thereafter. Such arguments are anchored in the assumptions of the historical institutionalist analytical approach and in the concepts of path dependence, critical juncture, in the positive feedback and sequencing mechanisms, and in the concepts of gradual transformations that help identify institutional development.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCOFTA) came into force in August 2011 amidst concerns that the provisions protecting Canadian investment in Colombia could exacerbate the precarious human rights situation. The Agreement concerning Annual Reports on Human Rights and Free Trade between Canada and Colombia was negotiated to address such concerns by enshrining the first ever human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of a free trade and investment agreement (TIA) in an internationally binding instrument. This thesis builds on a growing body of international legal scholarship that has considered the duty of home states of private investors to regulate their activity in the host state so as to prevent them from causing or contributing to human rights and environmental harm. It examines state obligations found in human rights, environmental and general principles of international law to propose that while an obligation might exist for the home state to exercise unilateral regulation of its investors, in the presence of a TIA that could cause or enable private human rights or environmental harm, investor regulation through the TIA can be seen as duty for both the home and host states. In view of the absence of such regulation in the CCOFTA, this thesis will consider if the annual HRIA mechanism is an alternative for preventing human rights and environmental harm caused or enabled by the TIA. It is submitted that while HRIAs of TIAs are a novel concept for which little international practice exists, this mechanism has the capacity to provide concrete evidence of human rights or environmental harm caused or enabled by the TIA, but only if based on a methodological model that uses existing state international human rights law obligations as indicators to measure a change in the human rights situation, draws unequivocal causal links between the investment protection provisions and human rights indicators, and allows for broad public participation, especially from the most marginalized and underrepresented groups in the host state to validate its methodology and findings. While under international law all investment-exporting states might have a duty to conduct HRIA on the effects of a proposed TIA as part of the due diligence to prevent transnational harm, the enshrinement of such assessments in an internationally binding instrument triggers a duty for the home state to, on one hand use the HRIA mechanism to prevent transnational human rights or environmental harm and, on the other hand, structure its annual assessments according to the described model in order to give effect to the duty to prevent. Broad and inclusive participation of the local affected communities from the host state in the HRIA becomes an integral component of the home state duty to prevent that can be expected to reveal any negative effects on the human rights situation from the TIA provisions, as well as the type of action required from both states parties to address them.

Il presente lavoro ha ad oggetto una analisi comparata tra Europa ed America Latina in merito al fenomeno del dumping sociale e al suo stretto rapporto con il contratto di lavoro internazionale e le relative condizioni di lavoro. Il lavoro di ricerca ha richiesto lo studio e l’analisi di fonti “variegate” e multidisciplinari in quanto si tratta di un fenomeno poliedrico, relativamente recente e che è stato oggetto di interpretazioni molto diverse, se non antitetiche. L’obiettivo della presente analisi è molteplice. In primo luogo, si è trattato di definire il perimetro del fenomeno, astraendone una possibile definizione, tuttora assente nel panorama normativo vigente. In secondo luogo, si è voluto, mediante una analisi comparata tra Europa e America Latina, verificare l’andamento del dumping sociale in differenti contesti, in particolare, in un Paese industrializzato e in un Paese in via di sviluppo. Con il terzo e ultimo obiettivo, facendo emergere luci ed ombre del dumping sociale, si è cercato di individuare un percorso futuro dove fosse possibile – mediante comportamenti proattivi da parte di tutti gli attori coinvolti – arginare i fenomeni negativi del dumping e tutelare sempre più i diritti sociali. / The thesis concerns a comparative analysis between Europe and Latin America regarding the phenomenon of social dumping and its close relationship with the international employment contract and related working conditions. The research has required the study and analysis of "varied" and multidisciplinary reference sources, taking into account that it is a multifaceted phenomenon, which has become more common in relatively recent periods and has been the subject of very different interpretations, sometimes even antithetical. The aim of this research is multiple. Firstly, the thesis sought to define the perimeter of the phenomenon, extracting a possible legal definition, which is still absent in the existing regulatory framework. Secondly, through a comparative analysis between Europe and Latin America, the research analyzed the trend of social dumping in different contexts, in particular, in a developed and in a developing country. In its third and last objective, the thesis, by taking out the pros and cons of social dumping, tried to identify a future path in where it will be possible – through proactive behavior on behalf by all those involved – to make a positive contribution to counter the negative phenomena of dumping while increasingly protect social rights.

Performance requirements act as policy instruments for achieving broadly-defined economic and developmental objectives of States, especially industrial and technological development objectives. Many States consider that performance requirements distort trade and investment flows, negatively impact global and national welfare and disrupt investment decisions compared to business-as-usual scenarios. As a result, a number of States have committed to prohibiting performance requirements in international investment agreements (“IIAs.”). Performance requirement prohibitions (“PRPs”) are meant to eliminate trade-distorting performance requirements and performance requirements which replace investor decision-making by State decision-making. This thesis focuses on providing answers to two research questions: first, how do States prohibit performance requirements in IIAs? And second, how should PRPs in IIAs be interpreted and applied? For the first time, this thesis: proposes a comprehensive understanding of PRPs in IIAs by drawing notably on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (“GATT”) Uruguay Round of negotiations and on the United States Bilateral Investment Treaty (“BIT”) Programme; develops a detailed typology and analysis of PRPs in IIAs through the identification of systematically reproduced drafting patterns; conducts the first critical and in-depth analysis of all arbitral awards which have decided claims based on PRPs in IIAs; analyses interpretation and application issues related to provisions that exempt government procurement from PRPs and to reservations that shield sensitive non-conforming measures or strategically important sectors from PRPs; and anticipates the application of most-favoured nation (“MFN”) treatment clauses to PRPs in the future. Finally, this thesis formulates proposals that can help interpret and apply existing PRPs and draft future PRPs in a more deliberate and informed way.