Dr Christopher Thomas NAB 7.18

This course is available on the Executive LLM. This course is not available as an outside option.

Available to Executive LLM students only. This course will be offered on the Executive LLM during the four year degree period. The Department of Law will not offer all Executive LLM courses every year, although some of the more popular courses may be offered in each year, or more than once each year. Please note that whilst it is the Department of Law's intention to offer all Executive LLM courses, its ability to do so will depend on the availability of the staff member in question. For more information please refer to the Department of Law website.

The aim of the course is to introduce students to international investment law and dispute settlement, the latter emphasizing developments in investment treaty arbitration. The course focuses on the public international law rules and institutions that govern investments and investment treaty disputes. The course has five main elements: (1) the historical, theoretical and policy background behind investment treaties and dispute settlement by arbitration; (2) the rules governing jurisdiction and admissibility of investor-state arbitration cases; (3) the substantive principles and standards – such as national treatment, most-favoured-nation treatment, expropriation, and the minimum standard in international law – that may apply to the investor-state relationships; (4) recognition and enforcement of investor-state arbitral awards and interaction between international tribunals and national courts; and (5) the discussion of the future of international investment law.

24-26 hours of contact time.

Students will have the option of producing a formative exam question of 2000 words to be delivered one month from the end of the module’s teaching session by email.

CL Lim, J Ho, M Paparinskis, International Investment Law and Arbitration (CUP 2018); R Dolzer and C Schreuer, Principles of International Investment Law (2nd edn, Oxford 2012); G Van Harten, Investment Treaty Arbitration and Public Law (Oxford, 2006)

Assessment path 1
Essay (100%, 8000 words).

Assessment path 2
Take home exam (100%).