Columbia Program on International Investment

The Conference was organized by the Columbia Program on International Investment; Fudan University (China); Fundação Dom Cabral (Brazil); Indian School of Business; Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO; and the United Nations Development Programme’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation.

Between 2003 and 2006, emerging market outward foreign direct investment quadrupled to reach $210 billion – a figure that is expected to grow in the coming years, as emerging market multinationals acquire foreign firms and establish new operations to boost their international competitiveness. The inaugural Five Diamond International Conference on “Thinking Outward: Global Players from Emerging Markets” convened more than 160 corporate executives, government officials and academic experts from 25 countries to examine this phenomenon at Columbia University.

Participants discussed the importance of a coherent policy framework for outward investment and the need for multinationals to manage the “social environment” by overcoming attitudinal barriers at home and deepening their social impact in the communities in which they operate. The event also featured remarks by Mr. Roger Agnelli, CEO of Vale, and a keynote address by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, who outlined some of the challenges that emerging market economies face.

The next in the cycle of five global Conferences, to be held August 18-19, 2009 in Brazil, will explore a host of internal (firm-specific) and external (especially policy) issues identified during the inaugural event as priority areas requiring attention.

For further details on the Five Diamond International Conference Cycle, please contact VCC@columbia.edu.

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Second Columbia International Investment Conference: “What's Next in International Investment Law and Policy? Improving the International Investment Law and Policy System”

The Conference was organized by the Columbia Program on International Investment; the Center on Global Legal Problems, Columbia Law School; the Integration and Trade Sector, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB); and the American Society of International Law (ASIL). It was also co-sponsored by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce.

Against the background of the growth of foreign direct investment, the proliferation of international investment agreements and the rise of investment disputes, the Second Columbia International Investment Conference identified some of the challenges that the international investment law and policy system is facing and discussed the way forward.

More specifically, the Conference examined the expectations of key stakeholders as regards the international investment law and policy system. It also looked at the implications of a rise of FDI protectionism and, related to that, addressed the question of whether there may be a need to recalibrate this system by looking, inter alia, at key investor protection standards; corporate social responsibility; home country measures; and the special role that developing countries can play in further developing and strengthening the current system.

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“Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Emerging Issues and Challenges for Latin American Countries and Investors”

The Conference was Organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII), with the collaboration of the Organization of American States (OAS) and SETIC/Academia de Centroamérica.

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Center on Global Legal Problems
Columbia Program on International Investment

Columbia Law School, New York

Jan Paulsson
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Ibrahim Shihata Chair on International Investment Law, University of Dundee

February 13, 2007

W. Michael Reisman
Myres S. McDougal Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Foreign investment, national sovereignty and arbitration

March 6, 2007

Daniel M. Price
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

Protection of foreign direct investment under bilateral investment treaties: a contribution to the international rule of law

March 27, 2007

Andrea K. Bjorklund
Acting Professor, University of California, Davis, School of Law

April 10, 2007

Tamara Lothian
Principal, International Strategies Group and Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School

How foreign investment can harm economic growth and how law can come to the rescue

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International Conference on
the Rise of Transnational Corporations from Emerging Markets:
Threat or Opportunity?

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Lical Carvalho, and Karl P. Sauvant

A large group of academics, business leaders and students met at Columbia University on October 24-25, 2006 to discuss the implications of the rise of transnational corporations (TNCs) from emerging markets.

Providing the broader context for the event were two keynote speakers, Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs and Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, who discussed stresses facing the world economy and governments due to the increasingly global nature of commerce and international investment.

Other panels in the Conference were led by academic experts who discussed the following issues:

Why do firms from emerging markets invest (or have to invest) abroad and what issues do they face when doing so? What are their transnational growth patterns and how has this growth differed from that of firms from developed countries some 30 years ago? How are emerging markets handling corporate governance and corporate social responsibility? How do the emerging home countries benefit from outward FDI and which policies should they pursue in terms of liberalizing their outward FDI policies in a manner that is beneficial to them and supports the international competitiveness of their firms? How will host countries reconcile the possibilities of tapping emerging market FDI with protectionist concerns? What are the implications for international rule-making?

Download the Conference Program ( >.pdf).

The papers of the Conference will be published by Edward Elgar in the forthcoming volume entitled The Rise Of Transnational Corporations From Emerging Markets: Threat or Opportunity? For more details on the publication, view the publication flyer.

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Symposium on Transparency and Consistency in International Investment Law: Is There a Need for a Review Mechanism?

What explains the growth of investment disputes? What are the principal issues to which this development gives rise? In particular, is there a problem of transparency and consistency in international investment law and, if so, how can it be addressed?

Download the summary chapter by Christopher Brummer, Vanderbilt University, from the forthcoming volume entitled Appeals Mechanism in International Investment Disputes, to be published by Oxford University Press.