Dr. Jan Kleinheisterkamp, NAB 7.34

LLM.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSEforYou.

The aim of the course is to introduce students to international investment law and dispute settlement, the latter emphasizing developments in investment treaty arbitration. The course focuses on the public international law rules and institutions that govern investments and investment treaty disputes. The course has four components: (1) the historical, theoretical and policy background behind investment treaties and dispute settlement by arbitration; (2) the rules governing jurisdiction and admissibility of investor-state arbitration cases; (3) the substantive principles and standards - such as national treatment, most-favoured-nation treatment, expropriation, and the minimum standard in international law - that may apply to the investor-state relationships; and (4) recognition and enforcement of investor-state arbitral awards and interaction between international tribunals and national courts.

Introduction; policy background. Treaties, institutions, rules. Theoretical perspectives. Jurisdiction: temporal, personal, subject matter. Admissibility: duty to exhaust local remedies, fork in the road. Standards: expropriation. Standards: minimum standard of treatment. Standards: national treatment, most favoured nation treatment. Standards: umbrella clauses, contract/legislation-based investment arbitration. Awards/recognition and enforcement.

20 hours of seminars in MT and two hours of revision in ST

Students are asked to submit one 2,000 word essay

C McLachlan QC, L Shore, M Weiniger, and L Mistelis, International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles (Oxford, 2007)
R Dolzer and C Schreuer, Principles of International Investment Law (Oxford, 2008)
G Van Harten, Investment Treaty Arbitration and Public Law (Oxford, 2006)

One two-hour examination in ST.