Week 34: Trade and Investment

The course addresses key issues in the law, economics and institutional dimensions of international investment activity and of ongoing efforts at regulating such activity. The course tackles a number of theoretical, policy and legal issues stemming from the increasing importance of cross-border investment activity, situates key actors – the multinational enterprise, home and host country governments, labour unions and other non-governmental actors, and discusses the evolving political economy of investment policy debates in developed and developing countries. The course investigates the contribution that international investment can make to the development process while recalling the public policy controversies, and policy responses, arising from heightened two-way investment flows between developed and developing countries. The course addresses the incipient and still very disparate nature of investment regulation, particularly at the global level, and investigates why repeated attempts at crafting a multilateral regime for investment have to date faltered.