Reforming the International Investment Regime: Two Challenges

Abstract

This short contribution addresses two challenges in relation to the reform of the international investment law and policy regime, namely how to encourage the flow of substantially higher amounts of sustainable foreign direct investment (i.e., investment that makes a maximum contribution to development) and how to bring about a more widely accepted dispute-settlement approach through the creation of an Advisory Centre on International Investment Law.

Karl P. Sauvant is Resident Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, a joint center of Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. This text draws on Karl P. Sauvant, The Evolving International Investment Law and Policy Regime: Ways Forward. E15 Task Force on Investment Policy–Policy Options Paper (Geneva: International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and World Economic Forum, E15 Initiative, 2016), available at http://works.bepress.com/karl_sauvant/428/, http://e15initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/WEF_Investment_Law_Policy_regime_report_2015_1401.pdf and http://ccsi.columbia.edu/files/2015/08/E-15-Investment-policy-options-published-Jan-16.pdf. The full Policy Options Paper provides a detailed discussion of the two proposals outlined here.