The unique experience of the author in supervising the World Bank's efforts to create the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency is detailed in Part I of this book, which provides a case study for the successful preparation of a complex multilateral convention in record time. The book also provides an in-depth analysis of the operational and institutional aspects of MIGA relating them to the broader legal and economic issues concerning international investment flows. Part II deals with both MIGA's guarantee and non-guarantee operations. It covers in detail the different aspects of political risk insurance as well as the advisory and promotional services needed to encourage greater flows of capital and technology across national boundaries and towards developing countries in particular. Part III deals with three major institutional and policy issues which caused the greatest controversies in MIGA's preparatory work and raised questions that go beyond MIGA's concerns. These include the standards that apply to foreign investment, settlement of disputes and the organizational and voting structures of international financial institutions. This book should be of direct interest to a broad array of researchers and practitioners in the fields of international development, foreign investment, international law, political risk insurance and international financial organizations. The topicality of its subject and the prominence of its author add to the importance of the book which is likely to remain the most authoritative in its field for many years to come.

Chapters.

The book argues that international investment law is a structured body of law based on uniform principles of investment protection.

Annotation Breach of contract is a hot topic in risk management, especially in the context of Public-Private Partnerships for large utility, infrastructure, or mineral resource exploitation projects around the world. Some claims are related to economic crisis, but more often disputes arise from political change, privatization reviews, environmental regulations and governance/corruption issues. Some recent high profile cases involving government tariff renegotiations and award settlements underline the importance of this topic for international investors. Claims of breach of contract often bring about an abrupt termination of activities or force contract renegotiations that subtsantially alter the original terms of the deal and projected financial validity. This study offers significant new data and analysis to allow an informed assessement of current developments and underlying trends, in a new collaboration between the World Bank Group (IBRD, MIGA, and ICSID) and Washington University in St. Louis.

International investments are governed by three different legal frameworks: 1) national laws of both the host country and the investor's home country; 2) contracts, whether between the investor and the host country or among investors and their associates; and 3) international law, consisting of applicable treaties, customs, and general principles of law. Together, these three frameworks profoundly influence the organization, operation, and protection of foreign investments. Investors, government officials, and their legal counsel must therefore understand the complex interaction among these frameworks and how best to employ them to advance their interests. This book examines the content of each of these three legal frameworks for international investment and explores how they influence the foreign investment process and the nature of investment transactions, projects, and enterprises. The book is divided into five parts. Part I, after explaining the contemporary nature and significance of international investment, examines the theoretical and practical links between law and the investment process. Part II explores the nature of national laws regulating foreign investment. Part III considers of the various contractual frameworks for international investments, looking at their negotiation, content, and stability. Part IV sets out the international legal framework governing foreign investment, focusing on the content and nature of investment treaties and on general principles. Finally, Part V discusses how the three legal frameworks interact with each other. By comprehensively examining each of the applicable legal frameworks, this book provides a vital overview of the laws, rules, and regulations governing foreign investment for lawyers, scholars, students, and government officials.

MIGA = Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

Despite the mounting criticism that globalization is encountering, the developed countries continue to lose no opportunity to change the rules of the global economy in their favour, regardless of the impact on developing countries and the poor. This book examines one of the most important instances of this: the rich countries' insistence that the WTO not only launch a new round of world trade negotiations, but that rules which were supposed to be confined to trade issues now be extended by means of new agreements protecting foreign direct investment. What is being proposed would be at the expense of the freedom of developing countries to determine their own policies towards foreign capital in tune with their development policy objectives. The two authors of this book have an intimate knowledge of WTO negotiating processes. They explain in detail the North's relentless determination to give privileged protection to the overseas investments of its transnational corporations. These initiatives have included, inter alia, the OECD's failed MAI initiative, the World Bank-sponsored Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMS). The authors spell out their consequences for developing countries. They examine whether there is any real case for a new multilateral framework on investment within the WTO. And they propose various options for developing countries to resist what amounts to a new form of Western protectionism, including how a development dimension could be incorporated in any new agreement, should the member countries of the WTO decide to proceed with negotiations. This book provides invaluable information and analysis for diplomats and trade negotiators, policy makers and scholars, as well as civil society activists concerned with the impact of TNC investments on development.