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Insulating a WTO Investment Facilitation Framework from ISDS
Get PDFThe authors identify several ways in which a WTO investment facilitation framework for development can be insulated from investor-state dispute settlement provisions in international investment agreements, and suggest specific formulations in this respect
Stakeholder Preferences and Priorities for the Next WTO Director General
Get PDFThe WTO is looking for a new Director-General (DG). What does the trade community think is needed? This paper reports on the results of an expert survey undertaken as part of a research project on global trade governance at the European University Institute to solicit views on what WTO members and the international trade community consider the most important attributes of candidates for the position, as well as views on the substantive policy and institutional reform priorities confronting the WTO – and thus the new DG. The results suggest strong support for someone with managerial and political experience, and a professional network that spans international organizations, major capitals, and international business. African respondents assign the highest priority to regional diversity. Resolving the dispute settlement crisis is the highest priority for most respondents; launching discussions on new issues obtains the least support. There is broad agreement on the importance of addressing a range of negotiating topics and institutional reforms, but substantial variation in the rankings assigned by different groups of respondents to specific issues
What Do Lawyers Contribute to Law & Economics?
Get PDFThe law-and-economics movement has transformed the analysis of private law in the United States and, increasingly, around the world. As the field developed from 1970 to the early 2000s, scholars have developed countless insights about the operation and effects of law and legal institutions. Throughout this period, the discipline of law-and-economics has benefited from a partnership among trained economists and academic lawyers. Yet the tools that are used derive primarily from economics and not law. A logical question thus demands attention: what role do academic lawyers play in law-and-economics scholarship? In this Essay, we offer an interpretive theory of the practice of law-and-economics scholarship over the past 50 years that recognizes the distinct methodological tools of the academic lawyer. We claim that, in addition to the legal resources they provide to the economic analyst, academic lawyers have cognizable analytical skills, developed through their involvement in law as an applied discipline and their mastery of the common lawʼs analogical method of argument. We draw on the idea of analogical argument to explain some of the differences in the ways that economists and lawyers analyze some of the building blocks of our economy, including the relationship between formal and informal modes of enforcement and the reasons why inefficient boilerplate terms persist in certain standardized contracts. By enriching the standard economic model with insights from other disciplines and clarifying the connections among these disciplines, the lawyer provides skills that are critically important for advancing normative claims
Free, Prior and Informed Consent: Addressing Political Realities to Improve Impact
Get PDFIndigenous and Tribal peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) has transformative potential. Yet, there is a considerable gap between the theory and what happens in practice. Global actors supporting recognition of FPIC and effective prior consultation processes usually focus on normative standards and best practices. They concentrate much less on addressing the political challenges and opportunities that shape how these processes unfold.
With funding from the Ford Foundation, we looked at the politics of FPIC in Latin America, analyzing how the power and interests of the key players–across governments, companies and indigenous peoples–can determine the fate of FPIC and consultation processes in practice. This research focused on Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, and provides practical options to address key political challenges in hopes of improving outcomes for indigenous and tribal peoples.
In addition, we are partnering with Dejusticia and the multi-stakeholder Dialogue Group for Mining in Colombia (GDIAM) to explore further the political impediments to meaningful mining consultation processes in that country, and to field ideas for navigating these more effectively in the future
BU S1E06
No full textLine art image of Anu Bradford, Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization at Columbia Law School.https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/beyond_unprecedented_podcast/1016/thumbnail.jp
BU S1E02
No full textLine art image of Kathryn Judge, Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/beyond_unprecedented_podcast/1004/thumbnail.jp
Federal Legislative and Administrative Framework
Get PDFAchieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will necessitate significant changes to most of America’s physical assets, from its power generation and transmission infrastructure to its buildings, vehicles, factories, forests and farms. These broad changes will need to address all four pillars of deep decarbonization – electricity decarbonization, energy efficiency and conservation, electrification of transportation and buildings, and carbon capture – supplemented by significant reductions in emissions of non-CO₂ pollutants. Such comprehensive change will necessitate the coordinated action of most of the departments of the Federal Government, from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE) to Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the General Services Administration (GSA), and other federal agencies, including the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Agriculture, Interior, Education, and Justice over a 30-year period. In addition, the states, territories, and local and tribal governments will play essential roles. Launching and implementing this comprehensive, coordinated action over three decades will require the establishment of clear and enforceable goals and subgoals; reporting and accountability, including processes for feedback loops and course corrections; and an organizational structure that can manage and drive this sprawling endeavor. Moreover, the process must be protected from backsliding
Shared-Use Infrastructure Along the World’s Largest Iron Ore Operation: Lessons Learned from the Carajás Corridor
Get PDFTo be beneficial for a country’s development, non-renewable resource extraction should be leveraged to build long-term assets, such as infrastructure, that will support sustainable and inclusive growth. This is especially critical for countries facing an infrastructure-funding gap (e.g. the World Bank’s Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic has estimated that Africa faces an annual infrastructure funding gap of US$31 billion); leveraging extractive industry-related investment could help fill this gap. Historically, natural resource concessionaires have adopted an enclave approach to infrastructure development, providing their own power and transportation services to ensure that the basic infrastructure needed for their operations is reliably available.
Shared-Use Infrastructure Along the World’s Largest Iron Ore Operation: Lessons Learned from the Carajás Corridor The Carajás railway corridor connects the world’s largest iron ore mine, operated by mining company Vale in Brazil’s Amazon region, to the company’s maritime terminal. Carajás is one of the few integrated railway corridors financed by a mining company that, apart from transporting the iron ore that made the investment viable, also transports general cargo and operates passenger services. Besides the shared-use or open-access arrangement along the railroad, third parties also benefit from Vale’s investments in port, airport, and information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure.
Building on CCSI’s work on leveraging mining-related infrastructure investment for development, this study provides insights into the logistics and institutional setup of the Carajás corridor and lessons learned for other countries seeking to implement a similar shared-use approach. It also provides insights into the benefits and costs related to the corridor, as well as opportunities to increase the development benefits resulting from its shared use. Both the full report and the executive summary are available.
The initial phase of this project consisted of a worldwide survey of case studies of shared use of mining-related infrastructure. Four Policy Papers deliver the findings for 1) mineral railways and ports, 2) power infrastructure, 3) water infrastructure, and 4) internet and telecommunications
Beholding Law: Amadeo on the Argentine Constitution
Get PDFThis essay introduces an online edition of Santos P. Amadeo’s Argentine Constitutional Law to be published by the Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación. Tracing the book to its origins in a paper Amadeo wrote for a seminar in comparative constitutional law at Columbia Law School in the 1930s, we discuss the intellectual context that gave rise to the book and assess its author’s methodological choices. We then examine one particular substantive choice: Whereas the paper specifically draws attention to the importance of understanding every form of political subdivision in a federalist system – identifying Argentina’s as the provinces, the federal capital, the national territories, and the central national government – the book mentions Argentina’s territories only in passing. The contrast is intriguing because Amadeo himself was from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Why, then, as his paper grew into a book-length project, did the subject of the Argentine territories shrink to a passing mention? We don’t know the answer, but we offer our informed guess, noting the fraught relationship between comparativism and empire
Comment on US Trade and Investment Agreements Submitted to USTR
Get PDFComments to USTR Re: U.S.-Kenya Trade Agreement (April 28, 2020): CCSI, in response to the United States Trade Representative’s request for public comment to inform its approach to a U.S.-Kenya Trade Agreement, submitted Comments elaborating on our main points that (1) investor-state dispute settlement should not be included in any U.S.-Kenya agreement and (2) principles that should guide an investment chapter or investment provisions in any such agreement should (a) strategically support cross-border investment that produces positive development outcomes for the U.S. and Kenya, (b) facilitate and support good governance of investment projects, and (c) enhance cooperation to solve challenges associated with cross-border investment