Towards a More Comprehensive Approach in International Investment Law

Abstract

International investment law is in transition. Whereas the prevailing mindset has always been the protection of the economic interests of individual investors, new developments in international investment law have brought about a paradigm shift. There is now more than ever before an interest in a more inclusive, transparent, and public regime.

Shifting Paradigms in International Investment Law, edited by Steffen Hindelang and Markus Krajewski, addresses these changes against the background of the UNCTAD framework to reform investment treaties. The book analyses how the investment treaty regime has changed and how it ought to be changing to reconcile private property interests and the state's duty to regulate in the public interest. In doing so, the volume tracks attempts in international investment law to recalibrate itself towards a more balanced, less isolated, and increasingly diversified regime.

By bringing together a geographically and ideologically diverse team of academics and practitioners to engage with the issues, the individual chapters of this edited volume address the contents of investment agreements, the system of dispute settlement, the interrelation of investment agreements with other areas of public international law, constitutional questions, and new regional perspectives from South Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim Region. Together they provide an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

The paper at hand is the intro to the book.

Keywords: TTIP, CETA, investment, investment protection, investment law, internatioal investment law, public international law, EU, European investment law, trade policy, South Africa, Pacific Rim, Europe, Latin America, investment reform, sustainability, sustainable development, UNCTAD, right to regulate