This chapter analyzes South Africa's decision to terminate its investment treaties and the underlying objectives of South Africa's new investment regime, namely: (1) reinforcing the ‘sovereign right to regulate in the public interest’; (2) doing away with international investment arbitration; and (3) placing foreign and domestic investments on an equal footing. It examines the standards of investment protection not explicitly laid down in the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill 2013 and inquires whether these standards are otherwise protected by the constitution or other laws. The chapter concludes that whilst South Africa's policy decision on its investment protection regime is open to debate, the government has followed a comprehensive, transparent, and inclusive process, in which relevant stakeholders have been heard and with which they have engaged.
The Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) is an international organization charged with assisting developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) in all legal aspects arising from the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Among its services, the ACWL provides, upon request, legal advice in WTO negotiations. The ACWL does not influence the political position of its Members or the LDCs. Rather, it confines itself to providing legal inputs that would enable its developing country Members and LDCs better to participate in WTO negotiations. In particular, the ACWL assists in drafting proposed legal provisions when a requesting government wishes to propose an idea. In addition, the ACWL conducts legal analyses of proposals tabled by other WTO Members in order to ascertain their potential legal effects were they to become part of the WTO covered agreements. In the context of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, the ACWL has made strides to become familiar with such areas as international law of the sea, fisheries law, and the legal aspects of sustainability and development in order to provide well informed legal advice to its developing country Members and the LDCs. Legal advice on the fisheries subsidies negotiations has, both qualitatively and quantitatively, become an important part of the ACWL’s work.
Legal advice, WTO negotiations, fisheries subsidies, fisheries management, treaty interpretation, ACWL, developing countries, least developed countries
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.