Investors' International Law

"International investment law is at the edge of crisis. After nearly a century of being a trusty amulet for investor protection from States, it is currently facing growing criticisms for its failure to address corruption, abuse, environmental damage, and other forms of investor misconduct. Policymakers, legal practitioners and civil society groups are increasingly calling for the dismantling or rewriting of the international law governing investors. Reform initiatives range from the rejection of international law as a governing regime for investors, to the dramatic overhaul of investment treaties that supposedly enable investor overprotection, to the creation of a multilateral international instrument that would enable the litigation of claims against errant businesses before an international tribunal. Whether these initiatives succeed in disciplining investors remains to be seen. What these initiatives undeniably show however, is that change is warranted to counteract this lopsided investors' international law. Despite the growing body of literature on the topic of investor accountability, broader and more profound issues of substantive rules on and regimes governing investor obligations and responsibilities remain underexplored. It is this gap in the literature that this collection seeks to narrow by offering a fresh, book-length analysis of investor accountability under general and customary international law, international human rights law, international environmental law, international humanitarian law, as well as international investment law. Each chapter in the book addresses a different and underexplored dimension of investor accountability, thus offering a novel and consolidated study of international law. This book will be of immense assistance to legal practitioners, academics and policy makers involved in the design, drafting, application and reform of various international instruments addressing investor accountability."--