Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Law General

The Trouble with Foreign Investor Protection

by (author) Gus Van Harten

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2020
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780198866213
    Publish Date
    Nov 2020
    List Price
    $58.00

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

Governments are rightly discussing reform of investment treaties, and of the incredibly powerful system of "investor-state dispute settlement" (ISDS) upon which they rest. At their core, ISDS treaties are flawed because they very firmly institute wealth-based inequality under international law. In this book, Van Harten explores these claims in the light of the history of early ISDS treaties showing their ties to decolonization and, at times, extreme violence and authoritarianism.

Focusing on early ISDS lawsuits and rulings, it is revealed how a small group of lawyers and arbitrators worked to create the legal foundations for massive growth of ISDS since 2000. ISDS-based protections are examined in detail to demonstrate how they give exceptional advantages to the wealthy. Various examples are also offered of how the protections have been used to reconfigure state decision-making and shift sovereign minds in favour of foreign investors. Lastly, the ongoing efforts of governments to reform ISDS are surveyed, with a call to go further or, best of all, to withdraw from the treaties. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to know more about the shady world of investment protection.

About the author

As an expert in investment deals and international law, GUS VAN HARTEN is uniquely qualified to explain what the Canada-China agreement means for Canada. He is currently a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, working previously as a tenured faculty member in the Department of Law at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom. He has written over twenty academic studies on investment treaties, and has provided commentary to governments, international organizations, and media such as Bloomberg, the CBC, The Globe and Mail, the Guardian, and the Toronto Star. He lives in Burlington, Ontario.

Gus Van Harten's profile page

Other titles by