Reconceptualizing International Investment Law from Global South
Reconceptualizing International Investment Law from Global South, Fabio Morosini and Michelle Ratton Sanches Badin, Cambridge University Press, 2017
49 Pages Posted: 20 Sep 2017 Last revised: 5 May 2018
Date Written: September 18, 2017
Abstract
This book argues that the current reform in investment regulation is part of a broader attempt to transform the international economic order. Countries in the North and South are currently rethinking how economic order ought to be constituted in order to advance their national interests and preferred economic orientation. While some countries in the North seek to create alternative institutional spaces in order to promote neoliberal policies more effectively, some countries in the South are increasingly skeptical about this version of economic order and are experimenting with alternative versions of legal order that do not always sit well with mainstream versions promoted by the North. While we recognize that there are differences in approaches to the investment regimes proposed by countries in the South, we identify commonalities that could function as the founding pillars of an alternative economic order. Unlike investment regulation currently being produced in the North that presses for the maintenance of the status quo and introduces changes to the system mostly focused on procedure, some countries in the South are attempting to reconceptualize investment regulation. They contest the unbalanced foundations of investment regulation that overprotects investors at the expense of the home state’s regulatory space. In turn, developing countries try to create an economic order that, while recognizing the importance of FDI for their economic development, seeks to preserve state autonomy to regulate in the public interest. This book showcases selected countries in the Global South where investment law reform is current underway, and explores the potential and limitations of an alternative order coming from the South.
Keywords: International investment law, global south
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation