Mr Oliver Hailes CKK6.19

This course is available on the Executive Master of Laws (ELLM). 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 Law School 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 Law School'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 Law School website. 

In advance of this course, students with no background in public international law may find it helpful to consult Roberts & Sivakumaran, ‘The Theory and Reality of the Sources of International Law’ in Evans (ed), International Law (2018) ch 4. Equally, students with no background in arbitration may consult Born, ‘Introduction to International Arbitration’ in International Arbitration: Law and Practice (2021) ch 1.

Investment treaties are instruments of economic governance at the heart of international arbitration and current policy debates. After the Second World War, many states agreed to minimum standards of conduct towards foreign investors to promote capital inflows in the face of political risks. Today, the standards contained in nearly 3,000 bilateral treaties (or chapters in trade agreements) serve to delimit the lawful exercise of governmental authority from a state’s international responsibility to make reparation for injury to investors, usually in the form of compensation. These treaties typically include each state’s consent to arbitration on the notice of any protected investor, known as investment treaty arbitration or investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). With around 1,500 cases, investment treaty arbitration has become an important vehicle for the development of international law. At the same time, diverse voices have protested the alleged chilling effect of large compensation awards on public interest regulation, not least amid the renewable energy transition, whilst there are live debates among governments as to the future law and procedure of foreign investment disputes.  

The aim of the course is to introduce students to international investment law, focusing on the rules of public international law that regulate foreign investments and are applied by arbitral tribunals in 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, protection of contracts by umbrella clauses, and the minimum standard in international law – that may apply to investor-state relationships; (4) annulment, recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards and the 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.

Douglas, Pauwelyn & Viñuales (eds), The Foundations of International Investment Law: Bringing Theory into Practice (2014); Kulick & Waibel (eds), General International Law in International Investment Law: A Commentary (2024); Lim, Ho & Paparinskis, International Investment Law and Arbitration (2021); McLachlan, Shore & Weiniger, International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles (2017).

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

Assessment path 2
Take-home assessment (100%).