The Impact of Investment Treaty Law on Host States: Enabling Good Governance

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Description

Traditionally, international investment law was conceptualised as a set of norms aiming to ensure good governance for foreign investors, in exchange for their capital and know-how. However, the more recent narratives postulate that investment treaties and investorstate arbitration can lead to better governance not just for foreign investors but also for host state communities. Investment treaty law can arguably foster good governance by holding host governments liable for a failure to ensure transparency, stability, predictability and consistency in their dealings with foreign investors. The recent proliferation of such narratives in investment treaty practice, arbitral awards and academic literature raises questions as to their juridical, conceptual and empirical underpinnings. What has propelled good governance from a set of normative ideals to enforceable treaty standards Does international investment law possess the necessary characteristics to inspire changes at the national level How do host states respond to investment treaty law The overarching objective of this monograph is to unpack existing assumptions concerning the effects of international investment law on host states. By combining doctrinal, empirical, comparative analysis and unveiling the emerging nationally felt responses to international investment norms, the book aims to facilitate a more informed understanding of the present contours and the nature of the interplay between international investment norms and national realities.

Reviews

Sattorovas book is a comprehensive contribution that can serve those approaching the topic from radically different angles.... likely to find its place on many bookshelves and rightfully so. -- Velimir ivkovic * European Journal of International Law *
An ingenious author has burst the bubble surrounding a central yet unexamined assumption in international investment law. Some of the most prolific promoters of the regime ... maintain that investment law has the beneficial effect of promoting standards of good governance associated with such things as transparency, predictability, and stability... By empirically investigating this claim in The Impact of Investment Treaty Law on Host States, Mavluda Sattorova has made an immensely important contribution. -- David Schneiderman, University of Toronto, Canada * The Journal of World Investment & Trade *
[T]he book offers interesting empirical insights into the perception of government officials of their own states commitments under investment treaties, and how this communication or lack thereof between governmental agencies, on the one hand, and those who conclude the treaties, on the other, is likely to be a phenomenon that is observed both in developing and developed states, perhaps to different degrees, but present in both nonetheless. -- Ana Maria Daza-Clark, University of Edinburgh * Edinburgh Law Review *
In this excellent and perceptive new book, Sattorova presents a well-argued and robustly researched critique of one of the dominant strains of thought in the academic literature on international investment treaties: the notion that in imposing legally enforceable obligations on host states, such instruments work to develop "good governance" practices in developing countries, providing tangible benefits on top of the financial contribution of the foreign capital itself. -- David Collins, Professor of International Economic Law, City, University of London * International Trade Law & Regulation *
[A] very thought-provoking contribution and a rare empirical-based study on the current legitimacy debates, challenging the traditional good governance narrative of international investment law. -- Ondrej Svoboda * Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law *

Author Bio

Dr Mavluda Sattorova is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool.