International Investment Law and Domestic Investment Rules: Tracing the Upstream and Downstream Flows

Journal of World Investment and Trade, volume 21 (2020)

U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 20-025

34 Pages Posted: 19 Feb 2020 Last revised: 9 Jun 2021

See all articles by Steven Ratner

Steven Ratner

University of Michigan Law School

Date Written: January 23, 2020

Abstract

International investment law and domestic law governing foreign investment strongly influence one another and indeed operate in a relationship of co-dependency or interoperability. Yet the flows between the two bodies of law, and their respective modalities of influence, remain generally unexplored in international legal theory. To shed light on this important phenomenon, this article traces the ways in which international investment law can affect the content of domestic investment law, using theories of international law compliance as a lens for such an understanding. It then proposes a set of pathways by which domestic law can influence the content of international investment rules. International law thus depends upon national law not only for its implementation but for its very content. Indeed, the regime of investment law will not tolerate significant discrepancies between the two. An appreciation of this dynamic is critical to evaluating the prospects of improvements to international investment law and can inform the ongoing discussions among stakeholders to this end.

Keywords: compliance, constructivism, domestic law, institutionalism, international investment law, pathways

Suggested Citation

Ratner, Steven, International Investment Law and Domestic Investment Rules: Tracing the Upstream and Downstream Flows (January 23, 2020). Journal of World Investment and Trade, volume 21 (2020), U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 20-025, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3524479 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3524479

Steven Ratner (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States

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