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The prioritisation of private funds in financing public infrastructures due to limited financial resources available through the public sector has raised concerns about the protection of human rights and environment considering that the main goal of corporations is to generate as much profit as possible. The presence of the World Bank Group in the mix is to strike a balance between these competing needs by introducing the concept of sustainable finance through technical assistance and the adoption of standards that are integrated with the concept to influence the behaviour of state and non-state actors in their investment practices, especially in the developing world. This study employs a legal doctrinal approach in providing a critical analysis on the authoritativeness of the instruments adopted by the World Bank Group based on the established doctrines to derive logical conclusions from primary and secondary sources. It enquires into the work of the World Bank Group to explain the potential acceptance of the concept of sustainable finance and its impacts in infrastructure development and international investment law. This study found that the interactions established in the arrangement of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) among all various actors in international law is the key to internalise the concept of sustainable finance since it could form a community of legal practice adhering to the same standards. Furthermore, the compatibility between the standards adopted by the World Bank Group and the provisions found in the traditional sources of international law on human rights and environment could improve state and non-state actors’ compliance with those existing norms.

Ekonomikos magistro baigiamojo darbo tema yra aktuali, kadangi užsienio kapitalo vaidmuo šalių ekonomikos plėtrai tampa vis didesnis. Užsienio investicijos - sparčiausias technologijos perdavimo būdas. Besivystančios šalys būtų sugaišusios daug dešimtmečių, kad pasiektų tą technologijos tobulumo lygį, kurį išsivysčiusios šalys buvo pasiekusios jau amžiaus viduryje, jei ne užsienio investicijos. Šio magistro baigiamojo darbo tikslas - ištirti Lietuvos galimybes ir perspektyvas pritraukiant tiesiogines užsienio investicijas, bei pateikti pasiūlymus joms pagerinti. Darbe nagrinėjami tiesioginių užsienio investicijų teoriniai aspektai, aptariama tiesioginių užsienio investicijų samprata, formos, strategijos, teisinis reglamentavimas. Analizuojamas teoriškai pagrįstas tiesioginių užsienio investicijų poveikis vietinės ekonomikos plėtrai, tiriami veiksniai turintys įtakos tiesioginėms užsienio investicijoms, bei priežastys palankiam investiciniam klimatui sukurti. Remiantis įvairiais statistikos šaltiniais: Lietuvos statistikos departamento, Ekonominio bendradarbiavimo ir plėtros organizacijos, Jungtinių Tautų prekybos ir plėtros konferencijos, Pasaulio Ekonomikos Forumo, Pasaulio banko, bei Lietuvos bankų ataskaitomis, įvairiais metodais analizuojama tiesioginių užsienio investicijų dinamika Lietuvoje ir lyginama su pasirinktomis Europos Sąjungos šalimis. Tyrimas įvertina Lietuvos galimybes ir perspektyvas pritraukiant investicijas, išskiria bendrus veiksnius, kurie lemia užsienio... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Final Economic Master's thesis is relevant, because the role of foreign capital for economic development is becoming greater. Inflow of foreign capital can provide the fastest way for developing countries to acquire industrial technology for economic development. Developing countries would be lost many decades to reach that level of excellence in technology, which developed countries had already reached in middle age, if not foreign investment. The Master's objective - is to explore the possibilities and prospects for attracting foreign direct investment in Lithuania, and to make proposals to improve them. Master's paper deals with foreign direct investment in theoretical aspects, discusses the concept of foreign direct investment, forms, strategies, legal framework. Analyzes the impact of foreign direct investment to local economic development, examines the factors affecting foreign direct investment, and the reasons for the favorable investment climate to create. Based on various statistical sources: the Lithuanian Statistics Department, Economic Cooperation and Development Organization, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and Lithuanian banks statistics, the dynamics of foreign direct investment in Lithuania was examined and compared with selected European Union countries. Conditions of promotion of foreign investments are discussed, features attractive for investors and causing doubts and concerns when undertaking... [to full text]

Magister Legum - LLM (Mercantile and Labour Law) / Most developed countries that enjoy the lion's share of foreign investment do not have domestic legal frameworks on foreign direct investment. This is because investors are attracted by a holistic picture of these countries. Such countries have strong institutions of governance, enjoy political and economic stability, embrace democracy, have respect for rights, and have high levels of development - factors which attract investors. In terms of regulation, many of these countries are heavily reliant on bilateral investment treaties. However, this is not the case in developing countries such as Zimbabwe. The existence of an effective and efficient legal framework on the governance of foreign direct investment is an important consideration for investors. This emanates from the fact that developing countries often have weak legal systems, shaky economies and uncertain political environments.

This study examines the evolution of the modern necessity defenses in ICSID arbitration claims against Argentina arising from the 2001/2 economic crisis. To date, ICSID tribunals have been fractured in their approaches to Argentina’s necessity defenses. The high degree of inconsistency among the tribunals has provoked criticism and threatens to tarnish the legitimacy of the ICSID system, especially in Latin America. Recent developments indicate that a more coherent and legally sound alternative is emerging with a “two-step” approach that is moving away from reliance on customary international law and towards language in the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the Argentina and the United States. The BIT-based “two-step” approach is superior to the other two approaches available in terms of legal justifications and policy implications. Adherence to the “two-step” approach in future tribunals will allow for greater consistency, predictability, and stability for states and investors. Abstract: This study suggests that a weak press establishment was key among factors that enabled the excesses of the government’s response to domestic terrorism during Argentina’s most recent military dictatorship, the Proceso of 1976-1983, which resulted in gross human rights violations. The paper examines the role of the Buenos Aires Herald, which played an exceptional role in reporting violence during the Proceso and was the only major Argentine daily to take a confrontational editorial posture vis-à- vis the government. In researching this topic, the author used the archives of the Herald, primary source documents and press clips from the era, interviews with key figures in Argentine journalism, and a variety of academic sources on the issue. The paper considers political and historical factors as they shaped the Argentine media and set the stage for the events of the Proceso. / text

In 2011, Korea ratified the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA). This treaty remains controversial in Korean society, particularly because many Koreans claim that the indirect expropriation doctrine under investor-state arbitration in the investment chapter will allow global investors to challenge governmental regulation justified by the Korean constitution. Despite such criticism, the KORUS-FTA indirect expropriation doctrine and the Korean constitutional property doctrine share more than might be expected in practice. However, this substantive doctrinal convergence between national and global legal systems does not eliminate all risks of conflict between the nation-state and global investors; conflicts can occur whenever two actors interpret the same text differently. Once an investment dispute happens, independent investor-state arbitration reviews governmental action according to independent interpretative rules. Systems theory suggests that nation-states can turn such global challenges into opportunities by taking contextual control over global investment in relying on the global investment legal system of the global investment regime. The nation-state can convince global investors that the nation-state respects transnational investment mechanisms, whilst indirectly imbuing norm-making with minimum national interest without incurring serious damage to its reputation. To be specific, the nation-state can attract more foreign investors by accepting the indirect expropriation doctrine and the investor-state arbitration respected by global investors. Simultaneously, the nation-state can secure minimum control over global investment under legitimate regulatory power reflected in the same indirect expropriation clause. In addition, the nation-state can guide the investment tribunal to secure a balance between investment protection and the regulatory power of the host state by prescribing the proportionality principle. Contextual control can be a sub-optimal choice for the nation-state in the sense that it avoids a worst-case scenario by securing proportionality and predictability. In order to make this measure more effective, the current global investment legal system needs to secure more commensurate autonomy or autopoiesis by furthering simultaneous and balanced structural coupling with a greater variety of social powers. In this context, global constitutionalism provides national constitutional tools for the nation-state; specifically, democratic participation in national treaty-making procedures and autopoietic structuralisation of the investment arbitration mechanism can make the substantive contents and application of global investment law fairer and more acceptable, not only to global investors and strong states, but also to social movements and smaller countries. In the context of the KORUS-FTA, the Korean government needs to make the treaty terms of indirect expropriation clearer through democratic participation. At the same time, the Korea should pay attention to making arbitration process reflexive to more various social interests, whilst protecting its operation from inappropriate influences. Such measures can prevent KORUSFTA tribunals from making extremely unacceptable decisions to actors of the global investment regime, including the Korean government, although they could not guarantee ideal decisions that stratify all actors perfectly.

The concept of investment in international agreements on the protection of investments Resumé This thesis analyses the notion of investment in the context of international investment law. The thesis is composed of six chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of the international investment law, including its sources, specific features and goals. The second chapter provides an economic definition of the notion of investment. The author distinguishes between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment and analyses their commonalities and differences. The third chapter deals with the basic types of definition of investment contained in international agreements on promotion and protection of foreign investments. These are the asset-based definition and enterprise-based definition. The fourth chapter examines the interaction between the economical and legal definition of investment. The fifth chapter explores the concept of investment in the context of the ICSID Convention. The authors analysed the negotiating history of the treaty as well as the case law of ICSID tribunals. The author indentified two basic approaches to the interpretation of the notion of investment. Whereas the subjective approach leaves the definition of the term investment to the sources of consent (notably...

Thesis (M. Com. (Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / Many developing countries are trying to make their business environment more attractive to foreign investors. They try this by relaxing rules regarding market entry and foreign ownership; improving infrastructure and making other efforts to enhance their chances of becoming a destination country for foreign direct investment (FDI). Among the characteristics of globalisation is the unrestricted capital flow and access to world market. Global FDI stocks have been on the increase and many more African countries are becoming more open to FDI, even though it still remains low. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to provide an analysis of the driving factors towards foreign direct investment in South Africa. The ARDL approach is used to investigate drivers of international investment decisions in South Africa using quarterly data from 2007Q1 to 2017Q1. The bounds cointegration method was chosen to analyse the long and the short run relationship amongst the variables of interest. In addition, the Granger Causality test was used to determine causal relationships between FDI and other variables. The study found that household income level had an effect in the stock of FDI. It also found that labour productivity increased the total output of goods and services and therefore impacted on the stock of FDI in the country. Public infrastructure investment and interest rates are also among the important factors that determine FDI inflow. Furthermore, the dummy variable has a significant negative effect and it shows that labour strikes and unrests affect FDI negatively. Although South Africa has implemented strategies to attract more FDI, recent political instability and labour disputes has left investor weary of the future of the economy therefore a refinement of some of these policies is needed if the country is to be successful in this regard. The county should also focus on developing and maintaining quality infrastructures in terms of, roads, telephones, internet access, water and electricity supply.

Dispute Settlement in International Economic Law - Selected Aspects Abstract At the time of the emergence of investor state arbitration, such regulation of states was seen as necessary to protect Western investors from expropriation of their investments by developing states, in which there was an absence of rule of law and the protections that flow from that. The ICSID Center was established primarily to ensure the availability of an assured impartial and independent dispute resolution service. The increase in the number of cases over the years, together with sometimes expansive, unexpected and inconsistent interpretations of International Investment Agreement provisions by tribunals, had triggered a worldwide debate and a number of countries had adopted reform measures. The EU has proposed a Permanent Investment Court to address criticism, aimed at investment arbitration and to be included as a measure under the TTIP. This concept has been also adopted in the CETA, and if successful, is likely to be adopted in other treaty agreements as the European Parliament has expressed a preference for the proposed investment court under the TTIP to be included in other free trade agreements. The concept of a permanent legal body providing public proceedings and decisions, establishing binding case law to address...

In a context of neoliberal globalization, have the processes of elaboration and implementation of foreign investors’ responsibilities by intergovernmental organizations reached the realm of legality? By relying on an analytical framework and a methodology that combine international law with international relations, the present interdisciplinary dissertation provides a twofold answer to this question. At a macro-level, it demonstrates that the normative integration of foreign investors’ responsibilities in international investment law is fragmented and consistent with the interests of the most powerful actors. At a micro-level, it relies on the interactional theory of international law to assess the normative character of several international instruments elaborated and implemented by intergovernmental organizations. By shedding light on the sense of obligation that each instrument generates, the analysis shows that such a codification process is marked by relations of power between international actors and has resulted in several social norms, with relatively few legal norms. / Graduate