Handbook home
International Investment Law (LAWS50091)
Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5Not available in 2020
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
About this subject
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
| Fees | Look up fees |
|---|
International investment law regulates the entry and operation of foreign investment and is one of the fastest growing fields of public international law. Over the last two decades, there has been exponential growth both in the formation of investment treaties and in the invocation of their unique systems of dispute settlement (against developed and developing states alike). This subject offers in-depth, targeted analysis of the various sources of investment law, their protections and the growing jurisprudence of investor-state arbitral tribunals.
The subject begins by tracing the historical, political and economic causes for the development of a plurality of international legal rules governing foreign investment across customary international law, bilateral and regional investment treaties. Students are continually exposed to a methodology and pedagogy that is both rigorously inter-disciplinary and draws on comparative insights. For instance, the subject will examine the unique elements of dispute resolution in this field (which confer standing on private (foreign) actors against states) in light of key institutional differences with other international legal systems (including the World Trade Organization and the International Court of Justice).
Substantively, students will explore key cases in detail to critically evaluate the impact of investment law (such as guarantees of compensation in the event of expropriation of foreign assets) across a range of normative values. In particular, the subject will examine a broad set of controversies surrounding the impact of investment treaty disciplines on regulatory autonomy, environmental and health regulation, development strategies and the human rights of citizens in host states.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject should have an advanced and integrated understanding of, and be able to critically analyse and reflect on:
- the plurality of sources of international investment law including custom and key bilateral, regional and multilateral investment treaties;
- the substantive rights afforded to foreign investors under these sources (including protections against state discrimination) and how those rights respond to a variety of complex factual matrices;
- the unique systemic characteristics of investor-state arbitration in light of comparison with other key structures for dispute resolution at international law (including the World Trade Organization and the International Court of Justice);
- the complexity of current controversies surrounding the impact of investment treaty disciplines on regulatory autonomy, environmental and health regulation, development strategies and the human rights of citizens in host states; and
- the practical, institutional and theoretical arguments for and against different reform proposals to realign the interests of foreign investors with home and host states.
Generic skills
On completion of the subject students should have developed and demonstrated specialised knowledge and skills in the following areas:
- mastery of theoretical knowledge and demonstrated ability to critically reflect on the theory, historical development and professional practice of international investment law;
- cognitive, technical and creative skills to critically investigate, analyse and synthesise complex information, concepts and theories and to creatively apply those skills and theories to different systems and factual matrices involving the protection of foreign investment in international law;
- communication and technical research skills to justify and interpret theoretical propositions, methodologies and conclusions to specialist and non-specialist audiences in the context of scholarly writing and/or professional advice in assessment tasks; and
- high-level capacity for self-directed legal research (including use of interdisciplinary materials) in order to demonstrate an integrated understanding of, and expert judgment about, complex questions surrounding the utility and practice of protection of foreign investment at international law.
Last updated: 3 November 2022