Public Purpose in International Law

Rethinking Regulatory Sovereignty in the Global Era

Pedro J. Martinez-Fraga, C. Ryan Reetz

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781107081741
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316272817
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: International Law
• Index: Law

This text explores how the public purpose doctrine reconciles the often conflicting, but equally binding, obligations that states have to engage in regulatory sovereignty while honoring host-state obligations to protect foreign investment. The work examines the multiple permutations and iterations of the public purpose doctrine and concludes that this principle needs to be reconceptualized to meet the imperatives of economic globalization and of a new paradigm of sovereignty that is based on the interdependence, and not independence, of states. It contends that the historical expression of the public purpose doctrine in customary and conventional international law is fraught with fundamental flaws that, if not corrected, will give rise to disparities in the relationship between investors and states, asymmetries with respect to industrialized nations and developing states, and, ultimately, process legitimacy concerns.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction and Sketch of Historical Origins
• 1 Public Purpose in NAFTA
• 2 Identifying Public Purpose in Customary International Law: Select International Instruments
• 3 Defining the Profile of the Public Purpose Doctrine in Human Rights Conventions
• 4 The Complex Interaction between the Public Purpose Doctrine and BITs: Discerning Order and Structure
• 5 Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources
• 6 The Role of Public Purpose in Foreign Investment Protection Statutes: Can FIPS Rehabilitate the Doctrine?
• Conclusion
• Appendix I A Comparison between the Performance Requirements Articles of the Canada-Jordan and the Colombia-Japan Bilateral Investment Treaties
• Appendix II An Empirical Review of the Preeminence of the Public Purpose Doctrine throughout the Ever-Expanding Universe of Bilateral Investment Treaties
• Appendix III A Spatial Comparison of Provisions Relating to Investment Protection, Incentives, and Dispute Resolution in Foreign Investment Promotion Statutes and Bilateral Investment Treaties
• Appendix IV Table of Citations
• Index