International Investment Law: A New Global Constitutional Order? (LAW235H1S)

At a Glance

Second Term
Credits
3
Hours
3
Perspective course
ICT

Enrolment

Maximum
30
26 JD
4 LLM/SJD/MSL/NDEGS/SJD U
5 MAIR/MGA

Schedule

T: 10:45 - 12:00
Th: 10:45 - 12:00
Instructor(s): David Schneiderman

This course satisfies either the Perspective or the International/Comparative/Transnational perspective course requirement.

Note: This course will be offered every other year. Next in 2013-2014

This course examines the basic structure, substantive norms, and numerous controversies concerning the global law to protect and promote foreign investment. This is a new legal regime, made up of some 2,700 bilateral and regional treaties entered into between most states in the world, and that intersects with many conventional legal fields (including administrative law, constitutional law, international law, and international arbitration). The regime is enforced by a contingent of international investment lawyers, operating under a system of privatized justice, in which states are held to account for their misbehaviour by paying an award of damages to harmed individuals and corporations. All of which prompts the question: does this new regime of international investment law institutionalize global standards for ‘good governance’ or amount to a new global constitutional order for the protection of powerful economic interests?

Much of the course will be taken up with learning the doctrine associated with this new legal order, its historical background, and future prospects. We also will assess numerous controversies that have arisen around the regime including: the problem of transparency, appellate review mechanisms, shrinking of policy space for developing and less-developed countries, the utility of human rights norms, and associated legitimacy problems.

Evaluation
Either a 48-hour take-home examination, approximately 5,500-6,000 words in length (100%), OR a research paper on an approved topic, approximately 4,000-4,500 words in length (75%), written during the term and submitted on the deadline date for written work, together with a short 24-hour take-home examination, approximately 1,500 words in length (25%). Note: Forty-eight hour take-home examinations must be signed-out on Monday to Wednesday 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. or on Friday at 4:00 p.m. and returned on Monday at 9:00 a.m. Twenty-four hour take-home examinations may be signed-out between 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. for a 24 hour period - Monday to Thursday, excluding weekends.