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Critical Perspectives on International Investment Law

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Handbook of International Investment Law and Policy

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Abstract

The international investment regime is, in principle, a vehicle to enable sustainable foreign direct investment and create favorable conditions for sustainable development. The international investment regime intends to cover important international economic transactions and the most powerful vector of integration among economies: foreign direct investment and non-equity forms of control by multinational enterprises over foreign production facilities. Most importantly, the growth of the global investment landscape over the past decade has largely contributed to the rise of developing economies as outward investors. Yet despite the economic importance of international investment, there is no overarching set of rules governing this subject matter. Instead, the regime consists of over 3,000 international investment agreements, the great majority of them bilateral investment treaties. As the renowned scholar in this field, Muttucumaraswamy Sornarajah writes: “[O]n the basis that the world was globalising rapidly, the message was driven home that the process of globalisation would be facilitated through the adoption of market-oriented policies of liberalisation of trade and the unhindered flow of foreign investment and the restructuring of socialist or mixed economies through privatisation. The two international financial institutions, the World Bank, of which ICSID forms a part, and the International Monetary Fund, espoused the tenets of neoliberalism and pressured developing States into accepting the philosophy through changes in their legal framework.” The chapter posits suggestions to recalibrate the existing body of international investment law with the purpose of serving the idea of global justice. Moreover, can international investment law be reformed within the existing framework to alleviate the suffering of the Global South in the aftermath of colonialism? On the same taken, the chapter first attempts to offer suggestions to rectify the lack of credibility and legitimacy, while offering solutions to ensure social justice in international investment law.

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Notes

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    Supra note 12 Sornarajah.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan

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  1. Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan
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Correspondence to Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan .

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  1. School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Julien Chaisse

  2. School of Business and Law, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

    Leïla Choukroune

  3. Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

    Sufian Jusoh

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Ananthavinayagan, T.V. (2021). Critical Perspectives on International Investment Law. In: Chaisse, J., Choukroune, L., Jusoh, S. (eds) Handbook of International Investment Law and Policy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3615-7_83

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