Welcome to the Columbia Program on International Investment
The Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII) seeks to be a leader on issues related to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the global economy. The CPII focuses on the analysis and teaching of the implications of FDI for public policy and international investment law. Its objectives are to analyze important topical policy-oriented issues related to FDI, develop and disseminate practical approaches and solutions, and provide students with a challenging learning environment.
CPII is a joint program of the Columbia Law School and The Earth Institute at Columbia University.
The Columbia Program on International Investment is supported in part through the generosity of Mark and Gail Appel, philanthropists.
If you would like to be put on our mailing list, please send an email to
CPII@law.columbia.edu with the subject line "mailing list."
Our Upcoming Events page is open to input from those planning FDI-related events. Please contact us if you would like a meeting or conference placed on the calendar.
Please visit the FDI Materials page, and please contact us if you have FDI-relevant materials that you would like to be posted there in order to reach a wider audience.
LATEST NEWS & EVENTS
Columbia University is pleased to announce the establishment of the Vale-Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment. Vale, the world’s second largest diversified mining company, is providing a generous grant to establish the Center. Click here to view the press release.
On April 28-29, 2008, the CPII hosted Conference I of the Five-Diamond International Conference Cycle on outward FDI from the BRIC countries. The event's focus was on “Thinking Outward: Global Players from Emerging Markets.”
The CPII collaborated with the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) and UNCTAD to produce Invest in Ghana: Focus Kumasi. Click here to learn more about West Africa's first city investment guide.
Appeals Mechanism in International Investment Disputes, edited by Karl P. Sauvant with Michael Chiswick-Patterson, has been released. Click here to learn to learn more about the volume; click here to purchase the volume.
The CPII-led Emerging Market Global Players Project has released its ranking of the top Slovenian multinational enterprises. Click here to learn more.
Download the CPII Newsletter, Winter 2007/2008 (pdf).
The Center for the International Legal Studies (Austria) announces the establishment of the annual Foreign Direct Investment International Moot Competition, together with Suffolk University Law School and Pepperdine University's School of Law and Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. Suffolk will host the first competition in October 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts. See www.fdimoot.org for more details.
The CPII and the Economist Intelligence Unit released World Investment Prospects to 2011: Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Political Risk. The report contains the first authoritative data on FDI flows for 2006 and forecasts flows until 2011, with 2007 set for a new record. A free copy of the publication is now available for download on this website.
Karl P. Sauvant spoke about "Opportunities, Challenges and Threats Facing Brazilian Multinationals" at the Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC) International Seminar on Latin-American Multinationals, on Dec. 7, 2007. View the conference program (in Portuguese).
The 2007 Columbia International Investment Conference entitled "What's Next in International Investment Law and Policy?" took place October 30-31, 2007, at Columbia University.
The CPII recently organized, along with the Inter-American Development Bank and UNCTAD, a conference entitled “Investor-State dispute settlement: emerging issues and challenges for Latin American countries and investors” in Washington DC, October 11-12, 2007.
Karl P. Sauvant participated as Conference Chair and opening speaker in the “International Conference on TNCs & Canada-China FDI: Challenges & Opportunities”, Ottawa, Canada, August 2-3, 2007. In his opening address, Prof. Sauvant put the Canada-China FDI relationship in context by talking about global FDI trends and the question of a backlash against FDI. Download the conference program, speaker profiles and presentation summaries (.pdf).
The Millennium Cities Initiative website has been launched. We encourage you to visit the new site for in depth information on the Initiative.
Please read Karl P. Sauvant's articles, "Africa: the FDI opportunities are local" (.pdf) and "FDI goes local: the Millennium Cities Initiative" (.pdf) which were published in International Trade Forum (Vol. 1, 2007) as an online article and printed article respectively.
Karl P. Sauvant took part in the Meeting of Experts on FDI, Technology and Competitiveness, co-organized by UNCTAD and the University of Oxford, Queen Elizabeth House, on March 8-9, 2007. Download his paper on "FDI in emerging markets: how are they doing and what should they be doing?" (pdf).
Download the debut CPII Newsletter, Winter 2006/2007 (pdf).
The CPII has supported the development of the Investor's Guide to Liberia (pdf). For more information about this effort see the Liberia Advisory Project section.
Read a summary chapter (pdf) from the forthcoming volume entitled Appeals Mechanism in International Investment Disputes, which includes articles from the April 4, 2006, Symposium on Transparency and Consistency in International Investment Law: Is There a Need for a Review Mechanism?
The CPII offers internship opportunites. Please view more details here.