Public and Private in International Investment Law: An Integrated Systems Approach

Members of the invisible college of international investment lawyers are engaged in a fierce battle over the conceptual foundations of their common legal enterprise. The debate centers on whether the international legal regime governing foreign direct investment is a de facto transnational public governance system or merely an institutional support structure for the settlement of essentially private investment disputes. These attempts to establish the public versus private nature of the regime are misconceived. International investment law deals with both public and private concerns, impacts upon both public and private actors, and crosses over traditional divides separating public law from private law and public international law from private international law. In light of these overlaps, the regime should instead be analyzed from an integrated systems perspective. This approach better comports with the regime’s complex interlocking nature. It is also better suited to the pragmatic challenge of accommodating the conflicting claims of diverse stakeholders within the confines of an outmoded but rapidly evolving legal schema. I illustrate this with concrete examples of minor interventions at three different levels of the regime that could produce major shifts in the prevailing balance between investor and non-investor rights at other levels of the regime. I argue that this strategy represents at once a more feasible and more sensible means of improving international investment law than other alternatives

Where Should Europe’s Investment Path Lead?: Reflections on August Reinisch, “Quo Vadis Europe?”

Relative to the past policies of its Member States, will the European Union’s new comprehensive international investment policy constitute a step forward, a step backward, or a perpetuation of the status quo? Professor Reinisch’s contribution to this volume opens a wide window on the current state of the debate. His cogent analysis suggests that, at present, all three possibilities remain live ones, although some basic contours of a likely trajectory are beginning to take shape. I use his musings as a springboard to investigate two questions which follow naturally from his. That is, in view of Professor Reinisch’s response to the question “where are you going, Europe?” I ask, first, where should European investment policy go next, and second, who should decide? These normative questions are pressing and require thoughtful answers developed through inter-institutional dialogue. If the new EU-wide investment policy is to succeed, their resolution must take precedence over the more mundane, technical matters that have consumed the bulk of scholarly attention so far

Differentiating Among International Investment Disputes

Can investor-state arbitration tribunals, which exercise jurisdiction over limited claims involving discrete parties, render awards that deliver individualized justice while also promoting systemic fairness, predictability and coherence? The answer, I argue, is a qualified yes – provided that the methods employed are tailored to the particular characteristics of each dispute. Using three well-known investment arbitrations as case studies, I illustrate that investor-state disputes vary widely in terms of their socio-legal, territorial, and political impacts. Significant variances along these three dimensions call for a differentiated approach to investor-state dispute resolution. I outline what such an approach might look like and analyze how much room there is to implement it within the current framework of the regime. While some improvements can be made through arbitrator-led efforts in the short term, what is needed in the medium term is a systemic restructuring that funnels different classes of investor-state claims into different types of dispute resolution mechanisms that better comport with the claims’ underlying characteristics

Transparency in International Investment Law: The Good, the Bad, and the Murky

How transparent is the international investment law regime, and how transparent should it be? Most studies approach these questions from one of two competing premises. One camp maintains that the existing regime is opaque and should be made completely transparent; the other finds the regime sufficiently transparent and worries that any further transparency reforms would undermine the regime’s essential functioning. This paper explores the tenability of these two positions by plumbing the precise contours of transparency as an overarching norm within international investment law. After defining transparency in a manner befitting the decentralized nature of the regime, the paper identifies international investment law’s key transparent, semi-transparent, and non-transparent features. It underscores that these categories do not necessarily map onto prevailing normative judgments concerning what might constitute good, bad, and murky transparency practices. The paper then moves beyond previous analyses by suggesting five strategic considerations that should factor into future assessments of whether and how particular aspects of the regime should be rendered more transparent. It concludes with a tentative assessment of the penetration, recent evolution, and likely trajectory of transparency principles within the contemporary international investment law regime

Public and Private in International Investment Law: An Integrated Systems Approach

Members of the invisible college of international investment lawyers are engaged in a fierce battle over the conceptual foundations of their common legal enterprise. The debate centers on whether the international legal regime governing foreign direct investment is a de facto transnational public governance system or merely an institutional support structure for the settlement of essentially private investment disputes. These attempts to establish the public versus private nature of the regime are misconceived. International investment law deals with both public and private concerns, impacts upon both public and private actors, and crosses over traditional divides separating public law from private law and public international law from private international law. In light of these overlaps, the regime should instead be analyzed from an integrated systems perspective. This approach better comports with the regime’s complex interlocking nature. It is also better suited to the pragmatic challenge of accommodating the conflicting claims of diverse stakeholders within the confines of an outmoded but rapidly evolving legal schema. I illustrate this with concrete examples of minor interventions at three different levels of the regime that could produce major shifts in the prevailing balance between investor and non-investor rights at other levels of the regime. I argue that this strategy represents at once a more feasible and more sensible means of improving international investment law than other alternatives

The Incredible 5-Point Scale Board Game

Game-based learning has become a staple of the educational community. However, it has not always reached the psychological community. Board games and game-based learning provide an opportunity to teach individuals about psychological concepts in a more engaging and entertaining way. Games are an ideal way to teach emotion related skills because they offer a safe and more accepting environment for mistakes. Further, board games encourage an active learning environment which can improve acquisition of knowledge. The current discussion focuses on taking a therapeutic tool (The Incredible 5-Point Scale) and developing it into a board game for use in session and at home to increase caregiver and client participation in therapy. The current research has revealed interest among the community that this board game is targeted towards. Further research will be completed in order to perfect the product through use of surveys in a clinical training setting. After the board game has been perfected, research will be conducted to explore effectiveness in education on The Incredible 5-Point Scale and general knowledge and use of emotional awareness, emotional regulation, emotional control, and coping skills

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) Metabolism and Regulation in Archaea

Thiamine is the water-soluble sulfur containing vitamin B1 that is used to form thiamine diphosphate (ThDP), an enzyme cofactor important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids and other organic molecules. ThDP is synthesized de novo by certain bacteria, archaea, yeast, fungi, plants, and protozoans. Other organisms, such as humans, rely upon thiamine transport and salvage for metabolism; thus, thiamine is considered an essential vitamin. The focus of this chapter is on the regulation and metabolism of thiamine in archaea. The review will discuss the role ThDP has as an enzyme cofactor and the catalytic and regulatory mechanisms that archaea use to synthesize, salvage and transport thiamine. Future perspectives will be articulated in terms of how archaea have advanced our understanding of thiamine metabolism, regulation and biotechnology applications

Laboratory evaluation of stable isotope labeling of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) for adult dispersal studies.

BackgroundStable isotope labeling is a promising method for use in insect mark-capture and dispersal studies. Culicoides biting midges, which transmit several important animal pathogens, including bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), are small flies that develop in various semi-aquatic habitats. Previous Culicoides dispersal studies have suffered from the limitations of other labeling techniques, and an inability to definitively connect collected adult midges to specific immature development sites.ResultsAdult C. sonorensis were successfully labeled with 13C and 15N stable isotopes as larvae developing in a semi-aquatic mud substrate in the laboratory. High and low-dose isotope treatments for both elements significantly enriched midges above the background isotope levels of unenriched controls. Enrichment had no effect on C. sonorensis survival, though a slight (~ 5 day) delay in emergence was observed, and there was no significant effect of pool size on 13C or 15N enrichment levels.ConclusionsStable isotope labeling is life-long, and does not interfere with natural insect behaviors. Stable isotope enrichment using 13C or 15N shows promise for Culicoides dispersal studies in the field. This method can be used to identify adult dispersal from larval source habitat where a midge developed. It may be possible to detect a single enriched midge in a pool of unenriched individuals, though further testing is needed to confirm the sensitivity of this method

Mind the Gap: Student Researchers Use Secondary Data to Explore Disparities in STEM Education

Large data sets offer opportunities for graduate students to become involved in meaningful research, but also comes with a unique set of challenges. This paper seeks to examine that relationship through utilizing the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 – representative of US ninth graders in 2009 (n = 21,444) – to examine a set of research questions about STEM interest and preparation amongst secondary students. Student researchers identified gaps in plans and outcomes with regards to race, gender, exceptionalities, and socioeconomic status. Findings indicated inequities that affect STEM outcomes. A significant interaction was found between students education expectations by gender on science self-efficacy [F(4,1264) = 2.797, p =.025]. This interaction was not observed for math self-efficacy. Females and underrepresented minorities were less likely to pursue computer science courses and computer science careers [Females: Χ2 (2, N = 20,594) = 111.500, p \u3c .0001; Minorities: Χ2 (2, N = 13,069) = 6.455, p = .040]. Students’ expectations for post-secondary education differed by IEP status and socioeconomic status [Χ2 (3, n =165,684) = 26.886, p = 0.001]. Finally, time spent in extracurricular activities impacted academic achievement and students in lower socioeconomic groups were less involved in extracurricular activities [Χ2 (4, n = 20,598) = 132.298, p \u3c .0001]