van Aaken & Lehmann: Investment and Sustainable Development: Developing a New Conceptual Framework

Anne van Aaken (Univ. of St. Gallen - Law) & Tobias A. Lehmann (Univ. of St. Gallen - Law) have posted Investment and Sustainable Development: Developing a New Conceptual Framework. Here's the abstract:

International Investment Law (IIL), like international trade law, has an economic rationale as its background. Nevertheless, this economic rationale and the empirical insights into assumed causal links play a much smaller role than in trade law. Whereas in trade law economic insights have found entry into law application, this is true to a much smaller extent in IIL. Furthermore, the political economy rationale has been explored in trade law, but not in IIL. This article aims at filling this gap by surveying the economic insights into the link between foreign investment and sustainable development and suggesting adequate interpretative arguments and places (jurisdictional phase v. merits phase) in investment arbitration. Coupling IIL and economic insights might not only help to ground IIL firmly in the goals it pursues, but also change treaty making and treaty interpretation by putting them on an evidence basis.