Dr. Mona Paulsen

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time) and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students with no previous background in public international law may find it helpful to consider consulting a standard textbook such as M. Evans (ed.), International Law (OUP, 5th ed., 2018) or J. Crawford, Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law (OUP, 9th ed., 2019).

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

Students will examine the legal architecture that promotes, protects, and screens foreign investment flows. Accordingly, they will study international investment law (including the interface between treaties, domestic legislation, and contracts) to assess its capacity to promote and protect select foreign investments, shape public policy, support economic development, and influence international law generally.

The course focuses on the role of investment treaties in finance flows. It begins by highlighting the historical, political, and economic forces that drove governments to adopt investment treaties that combined standards of sovereign conduct with a standing offer for private individuals to access arbitration. Students will evaluate the core features of international investment law, relevant provisions in trade and investment agreements, and the various actors that influence finance flows. The course balances doctrinal studies with an exploration of how the investment treaty system works in practice, with scrutiny of investment disputes.

Within the course, we will examine market access and investment facilitation issues, including new legal instruments to address barriers to foreign entry and the success of FDI in foreign markets. We will discuss how far international investment law constrains the regulatory autonomy of states, particularly owing to commitments to accord ‘fair and equitable treatment’ to investors or with obligations to provide compensation for the indirect expropriation of an investment. Yet, we will complicate this issue further by studying how governments seek to defend policy judgments and challenge investor claimants. Finally, we will discuss the legal principles that govern compensation and the recognition and enforcement of investment treaty awards. The course will enable all students to draw connections with global commerce and cross-border investment to other contemporary legal topics, including the environment, trade, human rights, and global value chains.

This course is delivered through weekly two-hour seminars totalling a minimum of 20 hours in the Autumn Term. Students will have two additional hours in the Spring Term. This course includes a Reading Week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

One 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

Reading lists will be provided for each seminar on Moodle. Essential readings combine primary and secondary sources to help students navigate the topics. Additionally, the course offers political economy and history readings to supplement select topics.  Where possible, readings will include relevant videos and podcasts to enhance student learning.

Indicative textbooks include C.L. Lim, et al., International Investment Law and Arbitration (2021); J. Bonnitcha et al., The Political Economy of the Investment Treaty Regime (2017); M. Sornarajah, The International Law on Foreign Investment (2021); C. McLachlan, et al., International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles (2017).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.