Conference: 50 Years of Bilateral Investment Treaties

The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, in cooperation with a number of other institutions and organizations, will host a conference on "50 Years of Bilateral Investment Treaties," December 1-3, 2009, in Frankfurt. The program is here. Here's the idea:

This year marks the Golden Jubilee of the first bilateral investment treaty. Signed on 25 November 1959 by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, it formed part of the process of reconstruction in the aftermath of the Second World War. 1959 also saw the early attempts at multilateralism in the form of the draft Convention on Investments Abroad, a combination of the 1957 draft International Convention for the Mutual Protection of Private Property Rights, produced by the Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Auslandsinvestitionen (one of the promoters of this conference) and the 1958 Abs Shawcross Proposed Convention to Protect Foreign Investment. This conference is the official celebration of this anniversary in Germany.

The purpose of this conference is not just to celebrate. With significant changes in the pattern of movement of foreign capital, a deep financial crisis, a turf war over competence in Europe and the threat of protectionism, this Golden Jubilee also provides a timely opportunity to examine the policy issues which will shape the international investment law of the years to come. The conference will bring together academics, advocates, arbitrators, economists, investors, policy makers and political scientists to identify and debate these issues. The conference has been designed to complement both in time and content the "OECD Global Forum on International Investment VIII", taking place in Paris on 7-8 December 2009. Details of the OECD forum are available here.