Reviving the emperor’s old clothes: The good governance agenda, development and international investment law

Abstract

6 The concept of good governance was first mooted in a World Bank report on sub-Saharan Africa that characterised the crisis in Africa as 'a crisis of governance' and elaborated and expanded in subsequent documents, most notably in its landmark report

The impact of investment treaties on domestic governance in developing countries

“…Even in the absence of systematic efforts to ensure compliance with investment treaties across the state apparatus, foreign investors' threats to initiate arbitration in individual cases could lead to significant ad hoc effects on domestic governance (Tienhaara, 2011). Critical scholarship also points to underlying normative disagreement about what constitutes “good” governance (Pahuja, 2011; Tan, 2015).…”

Taking Stock of the Scholarship on the Relationship between International Investment Law and the Need for Raised Climate Ambition

“…Literature on the substantive nature of these standards and arbitral practices in disputes related to these standards began to mushroom from 2004 onward in response to both the growing number of bits and decisions by arbitral bodies (Schill 2011). The body of literature, at first primarily produced by private-law commercial lawyers, progressively included more works by public international lawyers, as states and ngos became more vocal in their criticisms of excessive arbitral awards and of interpretations that potentially limited state sovereignty and the ability to pursue public-policy regulatory objectives (Tan 2015). The rising interest of public lawyers introduced a new angle, in that they were concerned about the impact of iil on global governance as opposed to it being solely an investment dispute mechanism focused on private interests (Schill 2011).…”