1st Edition
International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability
International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability provides a clear and concise insight into the relationship between the institutions that govern foreign investment, sustainable development and the rules and regulations that administer natural resources. In this book, several leading experts explore different perspectives in how investment and natural resources come together to achieve sustainable development in developing countries with examples from water, oil and gas, renewable energy, mineral, agriculture, and carbon trading. Despite varying perspectives, it is clear that several themes are central in considering the linkages between natural resources, investment and sustainability. Specifically, transparency, good governance and citizen empowerment are vital conditions which encourage positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for developing countries. In addition, this book provides new insights into key concepts which underpin international law, including sovereign rights and state responsibility principles. It is clear from this book that in the attempt to reconcile these concepts and principles from separate legal regimes, complex policy questions emerge whereby it is difficult to attain mutually beneficial or succinct outcomes. This book explores how countries prioritise their policy objectives to achieve their notion of sustainable natural resource use, which is strongly influenced by power imbalances that inform North–South cooperation, as well as South–South cooperation in the international investment regime.
This book will be of great interest to students, academics and researchers of international environmental law, international human rights law, international investment law and international economic law. This book may also be of relevance to environmentalists, policy-makers, NGOs, and investors working in the natural resources field.
Introduction
SHAWKAT ALAM, JAHID HOSSAIN BHUIYAN AND JONA RAZZAQUE
PART I
Natural resources law and investment law: Interactions
Foreword
ELIZABETH MARUMA MREMA
1 International natural resources law and sustainable investment: Principles and practices
SHAWKAT ALAM, JAHID HOSSAIN BHUIYAN AND JONA RAZZAQUE
2 Sovereign rights, state obligations and natural resources
UPENDRA BAXI
3 Evolution of the permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the context of the investment regime
JAHID HOSSAIN BHUIYAN
PART II
Balancing competing interests
Foreword
KAMAL HOSSAIN
4 Natural resources management and sustainable development in the WTO legal system: Implications for the investment regime
ILARIA ESPA
5 Natural resource protection in regional and bilateral investment agreements: In search of an equitable balance for promoting sustainable development
SHAWKAT ALAM
6 Arbitration and natural resource protection
MARIEL DIMSEY
7 Expropriation, nationalisation and resource protection – ‘resource nationalism’ and international law
JÜRGEN BRÖHMER
8 Regulatory strategies, CSR and resource protection
PAOLO GALIZZI AND EMILY SMITH EWING
9 State owned oil companies, North–South and South–South perspectives on investment
ELENA MERINO BLANCO
PART III
Changing dynamics
Foreword
PHILIPPE CULLET
10 Water, investment and sustainability
REBECCA BATES
11 Sustainable agricultural investment and the Global South
JONA RAZZAQUE AND PHUONG LE
12 Sustainable mining, human rights and foreign investment: Nexus and challenges
ABDULLAH AL FARUQUE
13 International indigenous rights, investment and sustainability in the mining sector
ANDREW ERUETI, SARAH D
Biography
Shawkat Alam is a Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University, Australia.
Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Law, Northern University, Bangladesh.
Jona Razzaque is a Professor of Environmental Law at Bristol Law School, University of the West of England Bristol, UK
"In recent years, a surge in natural resource investments has prompted both hopes and fears for efforts to promote sustainable development, and created new challenges for international lawyers. Yet few academic publications have explored the role of international law in addressing the interface between transnational investment processes and the management of natural resources. This rich collection of essays is therefore both relevant and timely. It covers impressively vast ground, combining thoughtful analyses of the foundational issues with a discussion of recent developments in specific sectors or themes. A recommended reading for anybody interested in the international legal dimensions of resource-based investments." –Lorenzo Cotula, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK
"The collection of papers published in this volume entitled International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability is timely as it comes soon after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Sustainable Development (SDGs) in September 2015 and the first report of the International Law Association’s Committee on Sustainable Natural Resources Management for Development in 2016. The analyses of different legal aspects of the complex concept of sustainable development will be valuable, in particular, for those devising national strategies for implementation of the SDGs. The challenge of change which societies face in different stages of development has needed a framework which would identify and elucidate the different facets of sustainable development. Juristic writings such as those contained in this volume contribute to a better understanding of the different dimensions of the complex concept, which is necessary if appropriate polices and strategies are to be devised to realize sustainable development." –Dr Kamal Hossain, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Bangladesh
