About the Project

The Network for Justice in Global Investment is a joint effort by citizens and organizations in a variety of countries to challenge one of the most anti-democratic aspects of the global economic order – the rules governing international investment. Read More.

Multimedia

Venezuela: when multinationals sue

Source: Blogs.ft.com

August 26, 2011

By Benedict Mander

There’s nothing Hugo Chávez likes more than to shake his fist at the private sector. Nationalising businesses is one of his favourite pastimes, with his Queen-of-Hearts-like cry of “expropriate it!” dreaded in boardrooms across Venezuela.

But it has its consequences. With steel tube-maker Tenaris initiating arbitration proceedings before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment

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Environmental concerns in international investment agreements: The “new era” has commenced, but harmonization remains far off

Source: Columbia FDI Perspectives

By Kathryn Gordon and Joachim Pohl*

In Columbia FDI Perspective No.37, Daniel M. Firger foretells “a new era characterized by profound harmonization” between climate change policy and international investment law,based on what he sees as “unmistakable signs of convergence” in recent investment treaty making.[1] A study just released by the OECD suggests that convergence of investment treaty making toward environmental

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International Investment Law and Sustainable Development: Key cases from 2000–2010

Source: IISD

Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Lise Johnson, IISD, 2011.

Book, 178 pages, copyright: IISD

This book summarizes and analyzes select decisions issued between 2000 and 2010 by arbitral tribunals in investor–state arbitrations. In contrast to other books on bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and other investment agreements, it examines the decisions with the aim of highlighting how they may impact sustainable development. Through such issues as

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Video report from Al Jazeera: “Protests halt gold mining in El Salvador”.

Source: English.aljazeera.net

25 Jul 2011

Resistance from environmentalists, and death threats against them, puts spotlight on El Dorado mine.

Canada’s Pacific Rim mining company owns all the land around El Dorado in El Salvador – one of the most coveted gold mines in Central America.

But the company has been unable to dig in because of resistance from local environmentalists who say that cyanide

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When the Claim Hits: Bilateral Investment Treaties and Bounded Rational Learning

Source: ssrn.com

July 29, 2011

A new working paper by Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen and Emma Aisbett shows that contrary to standard assumptions in the academic literature – the majority of developing countries did not make careful cost-benefit calculations in the midst of the rush to sign BITs. Some countries were, of course, well-endowed with expertise early in their BIT-programs, and most were more

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