授業の目的 【日本語】 Goals of the Course(JPN) | | |
|
授業の目的 【英語】 Goals of the Course | | This course deals with the legal issues arising from the operatoin of multinational corporations (MNCs), with a particular focus on the legal framework concerning foreign direct investments (FDI). At bilateral and regional level, countries have routinely negotiated international investment agreements (IIAs), and by the end of the twentieth century the international regime of foreign investment had taken firm root. Since the conclusion of the first BIT in 1959 between Germany and Pakistan, IIAs have significantly increased both in number and importance. On the other hand, there is a relative paucity of international rules and principles that provide the obligations and responsibilities of MNCs. This results in the unbalance between the rights and obligations of MNCs in the international law sphere.
Against this background, this course starts with examining the global and regional trend concerning the flow of FDI, and it discusses positive and negative impact of inward FDI on the capital-importing states. The first half of this course demonstrates how MNCs are ‘protected’ in international law by examining IIAs. The examination focuses on selected substantive obligations for investment protection and investment arbitration as a means of procedural protection for foreign investment.
The latter half of this course examines MNCs’ environmental and human rights responsibilities. It first examines the tension between investment protection and environmental protection, with an emphasis on climate change issues. It then discusses corporate environmental responsibility and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The discussion includes the potential role for international ‘soft’ instruments on Corporate Social Responsibility.
|
|
|
到達目標 【日本語】 Objectives of the Course(JPN) | | |
|
到達目標 【英語】 Objectives of the Course | | Students will be able to obtain a good understanding of international and domestic legal frameworks concerning protection and regulation of MNCs, as well as the skills to critically analyse the impacts of their activities and the potential role for them to play in the global legal order. |
|
|
授業の内容や構成 Course Content / Plan | | 1. Impact of FDI on developing countries and the current trend of FDI
2. Structure of International Investment Agreements (IIAs): substantive and procedural protection of foreign investment and japan’s investment treaty practice
3. Substantive Obligations in IIAs (1): concepts of ‘investment’, national treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment obligations, transfer of capital
4. Substantive Obligations in IIAs (2): fair and equitable standard of treatment, full protection and security, ‘umbrella clause’
5. Substantive Obligations in IIAs (3): expropriation and exceptions to substantive obligations – balancing competing interests in iias
6. Investment Arbitration (1): overview of investment arbitration – ICSID, UNCITRAL and other arbitration rules and conditions to establish jurisdiction
7. Investment Arbitration (2): some interpretative issues of iias and remedies in investment arbitration
8. Tension between Investment Protection and Environmental Protection (1): trend towards greater deference to the host state’s rights to regulate
9. Tension between Investment Protection and Environmental Protection (2): international environmental law in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)
10. Tension between Investment Protection and Environmental Protection (3): climate change and the international investment agreement (IIA) regime
11. Corporate Environmental Responsibility and ISDS (1): environmental and human rights impact of MNCs’ Activities
12. Corporate Environmental Responsibility and ISDS (2): asymmetry in the ISDS mechanism
13. Corporate Environmental Responsibility and ISDS (3): responsibilities of MNCs in the domestic and international legal order
14. Corporate Environmental Responsibility and ISDS (4): counterclaims: legitimacy, jurisdiction and admissibility
15. Corporate Environmental Responsibility and ISDS (5): Counterclaims based on (a) domestic law, (b) international law and (c) corporate environmental responsibility
|
|
|
履修条件・関連する科目 Course Prerequisites and Related Courses | | There is no precondition to take this course. |
|
|
成績評価の方法と基準 Course Evaluation Method and Criteria | | Contribution to class including mini-essay and class discussion: 40%, Final exam/report: 60%
Credit is given to C- or C (where applicable) or higher grade for each criterion.
|
|
|
教科書・参考書 Textbook/Reference Book | | Tomoko Ishikawa, Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Challenges and Potential (CUP 2022)
R. Dolzer and C. Schreuer, Principles of International Investment Law (2nd edn., OUP, 2012)
Reference
Doreen McBarnet, Aurora Voiculescu and Tom Campbell, The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law (CUP 2007)
|
|
|
課外学習等(授業時間外学習の指示) Study Load(Self-directed Learning Outside Course Hours) | | Students are also expected to prepare for and make presentations on given topics each session |
|
|
注意事項 Notice for Students | | |
|
使用言語 Language(s) for Instruction & Discussion | | |
|
授業開講形態等 Lecture format, etc. | | |
|
遠隔授業(オンデマンド型)で行う場合の追加措置 Additional measures for remote class (on-demand class) | | |
|