1 Abstract This dissertation deals with investment protection in the European Union from several points of view. The first part deals with the history of investment protection and its main basis and grounds for current legislation and proposals for future regulation, particularly within the EU. In subsequent parts, current legislation and intra-European Union investment protection is analysed in detail, including the question of validity and applicability of Intra-EU BITs, i.e. bilateral treaties concluded between two EU Member States. The analysis is made from the perspective of EU law, as well as from the point of view of public international law. The dissertation further deals with their relationship and demonstrates contradictions between them in two crucial cases, Eureko/Achmea and Micula. Additional themes of this dissertation are the powers of the European Union regarding investment protection and the conclusion of international treaties such as CETA and TTIP. This dissertation further deals with the status, jurisdiction and functioning of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), demonstrating the relatively smooth and widely accepted investment dispute settlement mechanism. In this regard, the proposed EU Multilateral Investment Court project in analysed, including a...

This dissertation interrogates which principles should govern the interpretation of South African Double Tax Agreements (‘DTAs’). This field of study is complex because any DTAs have a dual nature. In the first place, it is an international agreement where two states are parties (a bilateral agreement); second, it also becomes part of domestic law. DTAs are governed by principles of customary international law some of which have been codified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (‘VCLT’). Though South Africa is not a party to the VCLT, nevertheless, there is judicial support in South Africa for the notion that VCLT reflects general principles of international law [Harksen v President of the Republic of South Africa 1998 (2) SA 1011 (C)]. DTAs are incorporated into South African domestic law by way of statutory enactment in accordance with the dualist approach to international law. The first purpose of the dissertation is to systematise and analyse the structure of an OECD Model Tax Convention (‘OEC D MTC’) and the international methods (principles) of interpretation of DTAs in order to gain a better understanding of how this international methods functions. A number of issues relating to the interpretation of these methods are analysed. Since DTAs are applied by tax authorities, courts and taxpayers in a domestic law context, i.e. within the framework of the legal system of a particular state, the analysis focuses on the application in South Africa of the methods of the interpretation of South African DTAs. The second objective of the dissertation refers to international tax law principles (treaties and customary international law) derived from South Africa public international law and to evaluate a few selected issues related to South African DTAs and their relevance to South Africa domestic tax laws; the interpretation of DTAs and the implications of a DTA overriding or in conflict with South Africa domestic tax laws. It will also interrogate the legal status of a DTA under South African tax law and whether the anti-discrimination article in South Africa DTAs have the force of law in South Africa? / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Mercantile Law / unrestricted