Responses and Reactions of Host States to Investment Treaty Law: Some Empirical Observations

Introduction

While much has already been written on why states sign international investment agreements, there is a dearth of studies on the connection between such agreements and state actions in both the domestic and international arenas. What effects do international investment law and its dispute settlement mechanism have on state behaviour? Existing scholarship has so far been preoccupied with patterns of state behaviour in the international scene, such as treaty reform, thus leaving unaddressed the various patterns of state engagement with investment treaty law through changes in national laws and policies. In my current research project, I seek to critically evaluate the interplay between international investment law and host state behaviour from doctrinal, normative and empirical angles. In particular, I draw on empirical studies recently undertaken in select developing states, to expose some of the actual rather than abstractly imagined patterns of state behaviour, and to evaluate the international and domestic pressures and influences that ultimately shape state behaviour in the international investment law scene. The aim is to trace the emerging “nationally felt” responses to international investment norms and to analyse some of the factors that may hinder or facilitate the translation of such responses into international norms.

About the Speaker

Dr Sattorova is a senior lecturer in international economic law at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. She is a director of Liverpool Economic Governance Unit, an acting member of the Executive Council of the Asian Society of International Law, and a convenor of the International Investment Law interest group. Dr Sattorova has worked in an expert capacity with the UNCTAD and WHO. Dr Sattorova specialises in international economic law, with a particular focus on international investment law. Her most recent work examines the interplay between investment treaty law and national policy making. Currently she is working on a project that explores the impact of international investment law on government behaviour, with a focus on developing states. Dr Sattorova was a visiting professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil, 2014) and held a visiting fellowship at the Lauterpacht Center of International Law (Cambridge University, 2017).

Chair

N. Jansen CALAMITA
Head, Investment Law & Policy
Research Associate Professor (CIL)

N. Jansen Calamita is Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Investment Law and Policy Programme at the Centre for International Law (CIL). He also teaches in the Faculty of Law as Research Associate Professor (CIL). Before coming to NUS in 2016, he was Director of the Investment Treaty Forum and Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. He previously held posts on the law faculties of the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham.

His research is in general public international law, the law and policy of international investment, and international dispute settlement. He has provided expert testimony to the European Commission, the OECD, the Energy Charter Secretariat, the UK Parliament, and a host of other national governments. He previously served in the Office of the Legal Adviser in the U.S. Department of State (International Claims and Investment Disputes Division) and the UNCITRAL Secretariat. He holds a Juris Doctor magna cum laude (Boston) and a Bachelor of Civil Law (Oxford). He is Consultative Expert to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and a member of the editorial board of the Yearbook of International Law and Policy (Oxford University Press).