Researchers' Activities

On 29 October–2 November 2018, CIL participated as observer in the 36th session of UNCITRAL Working Group III held in Vienna, Austria. The meeting was attended by Research Associate Professor (CIL) N Jansen Calamita, Head of CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme, and Dr Charalampos Giannakopoulos, CIL Visiting Research Consultant.

Convening twice annually, UNCITRAL Working Group III brings together more than 200 government officials, UN officials and NGO representatives, with a mandate to (i) identify concerns raised by the current mechanisms for resolving investor-state disputes, (ii) discuss the desirability of reform in light of the concerns identified, and (iii) propose relevant solutions. During the Vienna meeting, discussions focussed on the second part of the above three-part mandate.

Research Assoc Prof (CIL) Calamita contributed to the discussions by delivering an address on the effects of third-party funding practices on investor-state dispute settlement and arguing for the desirability of reform in this respect. CIL’s participation in the UNCITRAL Working Group III is part of the Centre’s broader engagement with the topic of reform of investor-state dispute settlement, including through the possible establishment of appellate mechanisms and standing tribunals.

Research Fellow Dafina Atanasova attended the Trade Law Forum Incheon 2018, which gathered regional perspectives on ISDS reform from Asia-Pacific states in relation to the ongoing work of UNCITRAL on the topic. Her participation is part of the broader engagement of the Centre for International Law with the topic of appellate mechanisms and standing tribunals for investor-state disputes, and more specifically with the work of UNCITRAL Working Group III.

Research Associate Rachel Tan coached the NUS team that emerged runner-up at the Asian Law Students Association (ALSA) Investment Law Moot held in Yangon from 24 to 27 August 2018. At the keenly contested final, two NUS teams battled through four intense rounds simulating an investor-state dispute before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The runner-up team comprises second-year NUS law students: Ong Kye Jing, Wileen Saw, Timothy James Chong, and Isabella Tan.

Research Fellow Dr Dafina Atanasova and Research Associate and Practice Fellow Elsa Sardinha participated in SIEL Biennial Conference 2018 International Economic Law in Unsettling Times, American University Washington College of Law, Washington DC, 12–14 July 2018.

Dr Atanasova presented her paper ‘Applicable Law Provisions in Investment Treaties: An Empirical Take,’ as part of a panel dedicated to the general and theoretical aspects of international investment law.

Ms Sardinha presented her paper ‘Requiem for A Deal, or the End of American Influence in the Investment Chapters of Asia-Relevant FTAs?’, co-authored with NUS Assistant Professor Vincent-Joël Proulx, as part of a trade and investment panel dedicated to China and Asia. This paper had won the Best Paper Award at the Asian Society of International Law Japan Chapter’s Annual Global Conference in Tokyo on 1 July 2018.

Research Fellow Dr Dafina Atanasova participated in the workshop on political and legal theory of international courts and tribunals, organised by PluriCourts in Oslo on 18–19 June 2018.

Dr Atanasova presented her paper ‘A “Justice as Impartiality” View on the Authority of International Courts and Tribunals’.

Dr Ayelet Berman chaired a panel on “Investment Treaties and National Governance” at the 15th ASLI Conference 2018 in Seoul in May 2018. John Lumbantobing of the Faculty of Law, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan presented his paper “Very little spill: Internalization of investment treaties and their effects on domestic governance in Indonesia”. Younsik Kim of Sungshin University in Korea presented his paper on “Internationalisation of Investment Treaties in Korea”, and Sachinta Dias of Oxford University presented his paper on International Investment Agreements and Governance in Sri Lanka: An Analysis of Three Factual Scenarios”. This panel is part of an ongoing CIL research project on investment treaties and national governance. For more information about the project, please contact Dr Ayelet Berman.

Research Associate Ms Melissa Loja presented her research paper at the New Voices Panel at the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington DC. Ms Loja’s paper was about international agreements between non-state actors. Her paper discussed international agreements that national petroleum corporations such as Petronas, PetroVietnam, PetroleumBrunei and China National Offshore Oil Corporations enter into to manage disputes over petroleum resources that are shared by states across maritime zones and boundaries.

Professor Laurence Helfer, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law, remarked that her paper makes a concrete contribution to international law, because it presents primary data that have not been made known before, and it enables a granular examination of actual practices in international law.

Research Assistant Mr Robert Real participated in the Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop 2018 on International Investment Law and Constitutional Law. Held on 9 and 10 March 2018, the workshop was organised by the Goethe-University Merton Centre for European Integration and International Economic Order in Frankfurt, Germany. Participants in the workshop explored the different facets of the increasing interaction between international investment law and constitutional law and critically analysed the opportunities and challenges this interaction creates. The panel topics included the (domestic) constitutional law limits of international investment law, the European Union’s constitutional limits of international investment law, the role of constitutional law in investor-state dispute settlement, and international investment law as constitutional law.

CIL Director Professor Lucy Reed served as faculty at the 2017 Summer Institute of the ASEAN Human Rights Resource Centre (HRRC) held in Bali on 29–31 January 2018 (the volcano risk having postponed the original summer date). The chairman of the conference was HE Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, who is the chairman of HRRC and a member of the CIL Board of Directors. The theme of the conference was ‘Trade, Investment, and the Rule of Law in ASEAN’. Professor Reed spoke on ‘The Rule of Law and Dispute Resolution in ASEAN’ and moderated a panel on ‘Rights Dimensions in Trade and Investment in the ASEAN Community’.

The HRRC is a non-profit academic centre headquartered at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, in partnership with 11 other academic institutions in 7 out of 10 ASEAN member states. Its mission is to support a rights-based approach to ASEAN integration through research, training and education, and its core thematic areas are rule of law, business and human rights, and the rights of vulnerable populations. The Summer Institute is the HRRC’s signature annual event, organised in collaboration with the WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University and Udayana University.

CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme team organised the workshop on ‘Investment Treaties and National Governance’ on 16–17 November 2017, in the Asian context. The workshop had a selective call for papers, and participating researchers (mostly from the Asia-Pacific region) presented case studies assessing the impact of investment treaties on national governance in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The workshop brought together researchers to discuss and unpack the following questions in the Asian context. What impact do investment treaties have on national governance? Although a considerate amount of research has examined the impact of investment treaties on FDI, very little is known about their effects on national governance. Are governments aware of their investment treaty obligations? Do they internalize their obligations, and if yes, how? Do investment treaties lead to improvements in the rule of law and good governance, or do they undermine national policy autonomy?