Bassan provides a remarkable compendium on the relevant laws, regulations, and standards affecting sovereign wealth funds. These institutions are now at the very centre of the global financial system and demand greater appreciation of their distinctive qualities as well as their likely implications for nation-states and the global economy. Bassan s book is a unique contribution to understanding the governance and regulation of these institutions and will be an important resource book for those who must grapple with the growing power and global scope of these institutions. Gordon L. Clark, University of Oxford, UK and Monash University, Australia This book covers a true vacuum in international legal literature thanks to its multi-facet in-depth analysis of SWFs, a new type of protagonists of transnational investments in the global economy. It analyses critically the various approaches put forth to pinpoint real nature, legal set-up, relevant features in the diverse operating activity of SWF in the perspective of addressing the issue of the most appropriate regulation that would ensure two apparently conflicting goals: the protection of SWF investments and of host states legitimate concerns for vital national political or economic interests and the diverse activities. On this basis, the author reviews the various international hard and soft law regulations proposed and the relevance of existing disciplines including Bilateral Investment Treaties. The full coverage of the issue of sovereign immunity in respect of SWF is a useful completion of the author s analysis. Giorgio Sacerdoti, Bocconi University, Italy This book provides a definition and classification for Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and discusses its phenomenon within the legal context. It identifies the rules applicable to SWFs and focuses on the bilateral relationships between states. In eight extensive chapters, Fabio Bassan considers whether SWFs may enjoy immunity with respect to host state measures as well as protection in Bilateral Investment Treaties Written from an international law perspective, The Law of Sovereign Wealth Funds will appeal to students of international business, international organizations, banks and governments.

The book covers a wide range of topics of relevance to policymakers in countries that have sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and those that receive SWF investments. Renowned experts in the field have contributed chapters. The book is organized around four themes: (1) the role and macrofinancial linkages of SWFs, (2) institutional factors, (3) investment approaches and financial markets, and (4) the postcrisis outlook. The book also discusses the challenges facing sovereign wealth funds in the coming years, from an inside perspective on countries, including Canada, Chile, China, Norway, Russia, and New Zealand. Economics of Sovereign Wealth Funds will contribute to a further understanding of the nature, strategies and behavior of SWFs and the environment in which they operate, as their importance is likely to grow in the coming years.

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are state-owned investment funds with combined asset holdings that are fast approaching four trillion dollars. Recently emerging as a major force in global financial markets, SWFs have other distinctive features besides their state-owned status: they are mainly located in developing countries and are intimately tied to energy and commodities exports, and they carry virtually no liabilities and have little redemption risk, which allows them to take a longer-term investment outlook than most other institutional investors. Edited by a Nobel laureate, a respected academic at the Columbia Business School, and a longtime international banker and asset manager, this volume examines the specificities of SWFs in greater detail and discusses the implications of their growing presence for the world economy. Based on essays delivered in 2011 at a major conference on SWFs held at Columbia University, this volume discusses the objectives and performance of SWFs, as well as their benchmarks and governance. What are the opportunities for SWFs as long-term investments? How do they fulfill their socially responsible mission? And what role can SWFs play in fostering sustainable development and greater global financial stability? These are some of the crucial questions addressed in this one-of-a-kind volume.

Research on the role of sovereign investments in a time of crisis is still unsatisfactory. This Research Handbook illustrates the state of the art of the legal investigation on sovereign investments, filling necessary gaps in previous research. Current

Sovereign Wealth Funds have become increasingly powerful and influential investors. Their increasing role, and unusual character as both political and market actors, raise a number of issues with regard to finance, politics, regulation, and international business. This handbook draws together the growing but fragmented research on SWFs.

International investment law is in a state of evolution. With the advent of investor-State arbitration in the latter part of the twentieth century - and its exponential growth over the last decade - new levels of complexity, uncertainty and substantive expansion are emerging. States continue to enter into investment treaties and the number of investor-State arbitration claims continues to rise. At the same time, the various participants in investment treaty arbitration are faced with increasingly difficult issues concerning the fundamental character of the investment treaty regime, the role of the actors in international investment law, the new significance of procedure in the settlement of disputes and the emergence of cross-cutting issues. Bringing together established scholars and practitioners, as well as members of a new generation of international investment lawyers, this volume examines these developments and provides a balanced assessment of the challenges being faced in the field.

This volume provides the first major holistic examination and interdisciplinary analysis of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). SWFs currently hold three trillion dollars' worth of investments, almost twice the amount in all the hedge funds worldwide, and are predicted to hold nine trillion more by 2015. This relatively new and rapidly expanding phenomenon remains comparatively unregulated, but the International Monetary Fund and the G7 aim to establish temporary and voluntary rules to introduce transparency and uniformity until more permanent regulatory structures are instituted.