NYU Investment Law Forum
Pollack Colloquium Room, Furman Hall 900
245 Sullivan Street, New York, NY 10012
6:15 PM - 8:00 PM
The IILJ is proud to launch the NYU Investment Law Forum, co-sponsored by the Hauser Global Program. The Forum, which will meet one Monday evening a month through the spring semester, is devoted to the rigorous and critical examination of the increasing jurisprudence that is emerging from investor-state arbitral tribunals, as well as the underlying legal norms, whether in bilateral investment treaties or bilateral or regional trade agreements, that these tribunals are applying. The tribunal awards in investor-state arbitration raise important thematic issues, such as canons of treaty interpretation, the nature of state responsibility including remedies, custom as a source of law, and "fragmentation"-the relationship of investment law to other international legal regimes, whether the WTO or environment or human rights. Through anchoring reflection on these and other fundamental themes in the case law and related legal developments, we seek to engage the relevant academic community but also practitioners, policymakers, and activists.
Normally the sessions will focus on the presentation of a paper, available before the session, with commentary and discussion to follow. Hors d’Oeuvres and refreshments will be available before the presentations.
Schedule of Sessions (subject to modification)
January 11 - Professor Joseph Weiler, "National Treatment and the Public Interest: the Hermeneutics of the Unwritten Exception." Several BITs and the NAFTA Chapter XI famously or infamously do not have an exception clause similar to, say, Article XX GATT. The National Treatment in Taxation provision in the EU Treaties suffers the same fate. Are there any lessons to learn from the jurisprudence of the ECJ for Investment Panels dealing with this absence?
Introductory Note from Professor Joseph Weiler
Edited Versions of Case 21/79 Commission v Italy (Mineral Oil Products) and Case 46/80 Vinal v Orbat
Commentators: Barry Appleton (Appleton & Associates International Lawyers, Toronto and Washington DC) and Robert Howse (NYU law).
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February 8 - Robert Howse, "Custom in International Investment Law: Glamis Gold and other developments"
Note from Professor Robert Howse ( these are rough notes for a presentation, with incomplete references, and not an academic paper that can be cited)
Commentators: Andrea Menaker (White & Case LLP, Washington DC) and Andreas F Lowenfeld (NYU Law).
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March 8 - Jose Alvarez, "Revisiting the Necessity Defense in the Argentina Cases"
Commentators: Beth Simmons (Straus Fellow NYU; government professor, Harvard University) and Veronica Lavista (LLM candidate NYU; former attorney, Government of Argentina).
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Please note: Investment Law Forum's April 19 session has been postponed
FALL 2010 (tba) - Round Table on Investment Contracts and Umbrella Clauses in BITS. Convenor, Donald Donovan
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For more information and to RSVP (we kindly ask you do so at least 5 days in advance to each presentation) write to: iilj@exchange.law.nyu.edu.
