OUVRAGE : L. Trakman, N. Ranieri (eds.), Regionalism in International Investment Law

David ROY

Regionalism in International Investment Law provides a multinational perspective on international investment law. In it, distinguished academics and practitioners provide a critical and comprehensive understanding of issues in a field which has grown exponentially in its importance particularly over the last decade, focusing on the European Union, Australia, North America, Asia, and China.

The book approaches the field of foreign direct investment from both academic and practical viewpoints and analyzes different bilateral, regional, and multinational agreements, often yielding competing perspectives. The academic perspective yields a strong conceptual foundation to often misunderstood elements of international investment law, while the practical perspective aids those actively pursuing foreign direct investment in better understanding the landscape, identifying potential conflicts which may arise, in more accurately assessing the risk underlying the issues in conflict and in resolving those issues.

Thorny issues relating to global commerce, sovereignty, regulation, expropriation, dispute resolution, and investor protections are covered, depicting how they have developed and are applied in different regions of the world. These different treatments ensure that readers are able grasp the subject matter at multiple levels and provide a comprehensive overview of developments in the field of foreign direct investment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1
Foreign Direct Investment: An Overview
Professor Leon Trakman and Nick W. Ranieri

CHAPTER 2
Foreign direct Investment: A Historical Perspective
Professor Leon Trakman and Dr Nick W. Ranieri

CHAPTER 3
International Investment Law: Some Cultural Legal Insights
Professor Colin Pickard

CHAPTER 4
Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreements
Professor Leon Trakman

CHAPTER 5
NAFTA: An Overview
Dr Nick W. Ranieri

CHAPTER 6
The Legal Framework for Foreign Investments in the EU 
Professor Anna de Luca

CHAPTER 7
The Effect of Survival and Withdrawal Clauses in Investment Treaties: Protection of Investments in Latin America
Professor Gisela Bolivar

CHAPTER 8
ASEAN: The Liberalization of Investment through Regional Agreements
Professor Vivienne Bath

CHAPTER 9
China and International Investment Law
Professor Wenhua Shan

CHAPTER 10
The ICSID in Perspective
Professor Leon Trakman

CHAPTER 11
The Iran-US Expropriation
Professor Romesh Weeramantry

CHAPTER 12
Australia's Rejection of Investor-State Arbitration: a Sign of Global Change
Professor Leon Trakman

CHAPTER 13
The Relation of the EU and Member States in Investor-State Arbitration
Dr Stephan W. Schill

CHAPTER 14
Balancing Investors' Rights with Public Policy in the NAFTA Context
Dr Nick W. Ranieri

CHAPTER 15
Consumer Product Safety Regulation and Investor-State Arbitration Policy and Practice after Philip Morris Asia v Australia
Professor Luke Nottage

CHAPTER 16
THE CASE AGAINST INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW
Professor Sornarajah 

APPENDIX
A POLEMIC: THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST INVESTMENT LIBERALIZATION 
Professor Trakman: The Case For Investment LiberalizationProfessor Sornarajah: The Case Against Investment Liberalization 

Leon TRACKMAN, Nicola RANIERI (eds.), Regionalism in International Investment Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013 (560 pp.)

Leon Trakman is Professor of Law and Immediate Past Dean, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. He has been appointed distinguished or visiting professor at the University of California, Davis; University of Wisconsin; McGill University; Tulane; and University of Cape Town. He has been awarded a Bora Laskin National Fellowship and a Killam Senior Fellowship, both in Canada. Professor Trakman is the author and editor of 8 books and over 100 articles on international commercial arbitration and international trade and investment law. As an international commercial arbitrator and mediator, Professor Trakman has served extensively as an inter-governmental trade adjudicator. He was appointed by US, Canadian and Mexican Governments under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and before then, under the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Professor Trakman is a barrister in New South Wales, Australia, a barrister and solicitor in Nova Scotia, Canada and an advocate in South Africa. He holds masters and doctorate degrees in Law, both earned at the Harvard Law School.

Nick Ranieri is in private practice, consulting clients on NAFTA related issues. He obtained his doctorate from the Tulane School of Law and is admitted to the Bars of Ontario and New York, as well as other bars in the United States. He was the Director of the Centro Juridico Para el Comercio Inter-Americana in Monterrey, Mexico and has served as a Panelist under the NAFTA Chapter 19 panel process dealing antidumping and subsidies matters. His professional experience has included counseling state entities on the creation of free trade zones as well as counseling private entities on issues dealing with foreign investment and expropriation. He has written on subjects relating to international trade and investment and has lectured at the ITESM School of Law. He was a founding member of the NAFTA Consortium on Legal Education and served on various alternative dispute resolution bodies throughout North America.

Contributors:

Muthucumaraswamy Sornarjah is the CJ Koh Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore. 

Anna de Luca is a Research Fellow in International Law at Bocconi University in Milan. 

Vivienne Bath is Professor of Chinese and International Business Law at Sydney Law School, University of Sydney and Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law and Chair of the China Studies Centre Research Committee at the University of Sydney. 

Gisela Bolivar, International Trade Consultant. 

Luke Nottage is Professor of Comparative and Transnational Business Law at Sydney Law School, founding Co-Director of the Australian Network for Japanese Law and Associate Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney, and Comparative and Global Law Program coordinator for the Sydney Centre for International Law. He specializes in contract law, consumer product safety law and arbitration, with a particular interest in Japan and the Asia-Pacific. 

Colin Picker is Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales Law Faculty. 

Wenhua Shan is Dean and Ministry of Education Changjiang, Chair Professor of International Economic Law of Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Law, and Professor of International Law at Oxford Brookes University.

Stephan Schill is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. 

Romesh Weeramantry is Associate Professor of Law at the City University of Hong Kong.