Researchers' Activities

CIL Research Fellow Junianto James Losari was invited by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia to present his research on the investment chapters in various ASEAN + Dialogue Partners Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in the 1st Workshop on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which was held on 20-21st May 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. The Workshop was attended by scholars (mostly economists) from various universities in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. James presented his paper titled, ‘Searching for an Ideal International Investment Protection Regime for ASEAN + Dialogue Partners (RCEP): Where do we Begin?’ The paper conducted a baseline study of various provisions contained in various BITs, regional investment agreements and investment chapters of FTAs among ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners. He also proposed that RCEP should be used as an opportunity to consolidate the existing investment agreements to solve parallelism caused by the spaghetti bowl phenomenon of investment agreements among the negotiating parties. The Workshop is expected to produce a report for RCEP negotiators that can support the negotiating process.

CIL Practice Fellow Ms Harpreet Kaur Dhillon was invited to speak at the Regional Arbitral Institutes Forum (RAIF) 2015 on 9 May 2015 at the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was part of a 3-member panel on investor-state arbitration, together with Professor Chester Brown of University of Sydney and Mr. Hussein Haeri of Withers LLP (London). Harpreet presented on the “Clash of Bilateralism and Regionalism in International Investment Agreements of ASEAN Member States: What Have We Overlooked?”, examining the overlap in investment treaty protection in existing agreements and why an investor may approach strategically the question of which amongst multiple investment agreements between the same State parties it may proceed in investor-state arbitration. The keynote address was delivered by Singapore’s Attorney-General, Mr. V K Rajah SC, and the conference was hosted by the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators. More than 100 participants attended the RAIF. To download her presentation in PDF format, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman presented lectures on 8 and 11 May 2015 on the law of the sea to the participants in the RSIS Command Staff College Course in Maritime Security Studies at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law invited A/P Michael Ewing-Chow, CIL Head of Trade/Investment Law and Policy, to be one of the panellists in the 24th Investment Treaty Forum Public Conference, which was held on 8 May 2015 in London, United Kingdom. The theme of this year’s forum was “The European Union’s Investment Treaties in Global Context”. On the panel, “Comparing the Texts-Substantive Protections”, Michael discussed the most-favoured nation (MFN) clause, which has been a subject of controversy in international investment law. He noted that the Investment Chapter of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement does not have an MFN clause, whereas the Investment Chapter of the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement (CETA) has one that carves out dispute settlement and limits MFN application only to treatment. He then proposed that the necessity of an MFN clause should be re-evaluated in light of States’ attempts to refine their new International Investment Agreements (IIAs), and that National Treatment (NT) and Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) clauses may be sufficient to address investors’ concerns regarding abuse.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) invited A/P Michael Ewing-Chow, CIL Head of Trade/Investment Law and Policy, as one of a select group of international investment law experts to a Peer Review Meeting for the forthcoming UNCTAD World Investment Report (WIR) 2015. The Meeting was held on 29-30 April 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the Meeting, the experts discussed the issue of International Investment Agreement (IIA) reform and how a holistic approach to IIA should be conceptualised. UNCTAD will include the result of the discussions in the forthcoming WIR 2015.

CIL Director Robert Beckman and CIL Visiting Research Fellow Captain J Ashley Roach attended the annual Plenary Meeting of the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) in Hong Kong from 28-30 April 2015. Professor Beckman made an invited presentation on ‘Sovereignty and Maritime Disputes in Southeast Asia: Implications for the Cable Industry’. To view his presentation in PDF format, click here.

CIL Research Fellow Denise Cheong was invited to speak at the Workshop on “National Ocean Environmental Contingency Plan in Asian Pacific States” on 27 April 2015 in Busan, Korea where she delivered a presentation on “National Ocean Environmental Contingency Plan in Asian Pacific States: The Singapore Perspective”. The Workshop was organised by Development of International Law in Asia (DILA-Asia) and The Institute for Legal Studies of INHA University, Korea. The Workshop was attended by academics from all over the Asia-Pacific Region as well as the United States and Canada. To download her presentation, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman presented a paper at the 2nd Conference on the South China Sea at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China on 24-25 April 2015. The Conference was jointly organised by the Centre on Asia and Globalisation of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, and the Collaborative Innovation Centre for South China Sea Studies, Nanjing University. Professor Beckman’s paper was entitled “International Law and China’s Reclamation Works in the South China Sea”. For a copy of the draft paper, click here. For a copy of the PowerPoint Presentation, click here.

CIL Practice Fellow Ms Harpreet Kaur Dhillon was invited to speak at the 4th Conference for the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law on 16 and 17 April 2015 at the University of Milan in Milan, Italy. Harpreet delivered a paper on its Investment Dispute Settlement panel titled “The Makings of the Modern Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Provision: the Case-Study of Singapore”, examining and critiquing the evolution of the ISDS provision in Singapore’s international investment agreements. More than 80 participants from around the world attended the Conference. To download her presentation, click here.

CIL Head of Trade/Investment Law and Policy Associate Professor Michael Ewing-Chow was invited by the ASEAN Secretariat and the World Trade Institute (WTI) to speak at the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA) Forum on “Transforming Investment in ASEAN through ACIA”, which was held on 15 April 2015 in Jakarta, Indonesia. He shared his views about how ASEAN could be transformed into an investment hub by the ACIA and the potential benefits of ACIA to Indonesia. He also chaired a session on “The experience of the Indonesian and Third-Country Businesses in Investing in ASEAN”. The speakers of the session included Indonesian business leaders from Indofood, Semen Indonesia and XL Axiata, as well as Mr Rizar Indomo Nazaroedin, Director of Regional Cooperation of the Indonesian Investment Coordination Board (BKPM).