Transnational Law Commons^™

Corporate Agricultural Investment And The Right To Food: Addressing Disparate Protections And Promoting Rights-Consistent Outcomes, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Anna Bulman

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Over the past decade, the world has witnessed heightened corporate interest in large-scale land-based agricultural investment. While such investments can potentially have positive effects for local communities, they also can have wide-ranging negative impacts on human rights, including through forced displacement and the loss of livelihoods. This Article examines the impact of large-scale corporate agricultural investment on the right to food, as well as on human rights more generally. It considers the protections offered by the investment and human rights legal regimes to both corporations and individuals, including recent international developments relating to transnational corporate accountability and efforts to integrate …

Sustainable Development Goals: How Can The Mining Sector Contribute?, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In September 2015, the heads of 193 United Nations (UN) Member States adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The agenda provides a successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals, which were adopted in 2000, with a view to ending poverty in all forms and dimensions, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all.

A Silver Lining? Impact Of Commodity Price Fall On Good Governance In Sierra Leone, Herbert M'Cleod, Nicolas Maennling, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

From 2002 to 2013, resource-rich countries in Africa enjoyed the benefits of a commodity boom, using increased revenues to embark on major infrastructure projects in roads, rail, ports, and housing. But when commodity prices fell starting in 2011 (see figure below), public sector revenues took a major hit with private sector companies scaling back operations, delaying investment decisions and suspending unprofitable operations. Especially as the number and size of investments in the sector contracted, Governments felt increased pressure to collect, manage and spend those revenues more efficiently. As a result, the fall in commodity prices and mounting economic pressure actually …

Land Deal Dilemmas: Grievances, Human Rights, And Investor Protections, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Lise Johnson, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Land-based investments can create significant grievances for local individuals or communities, and host governments seeking to address those grievances must navigate a complicated landscape of legal obligations and pragmatic considerations. This report, funded by UK aid from the Department for International Development, focuses on practical solutions for governments confronting grievances that arise from large-scale investments in agricultural or forestry projects.

The report considers such solutions in the context of governments’ legal obligations, particularly those imposed by international investment law, international human rights law, and investor-state contracts. Understanding the implications of this diverse range of legal obligations is particularly important in …

Guide To Land Contracts: Agricultural Projects, International Senior Lawyers Project, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Agricultural investment contracts can be complex, with complicated provisions that are difficult to understand. This Guide provides explanations for a range of common provisions, and includes a Glossary of legal and technical terms. It assists non-lawyers in better understanding agricultural investment contracts, such as those available on the Open Land Contracts repository.

The Guide was prepared by International Senior Lawyers Project staff and volunteers in collaboration with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment.

Transparency In Land-Based Investment: Key Questions And Next Steps, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Large-scale investments in agriculture and forestry are often shrouded in secrecy. In many cases, they are negotiated without the involvement of affected communities, approved through opaque decision-making procedures, and governed by legal agreements that are difficult both to access and to understand. This systemic lack of transparency impedes accountability and exacerbates ongoing disagreements about the real costs and benefits for investors, host countries, and their citizens.

Jointly authored by CCSI and the Open Contracting Partnership, this briefing note examines why contract disclosure and a contracting process that is open, accessible, and inclusive are important; what such transparency entails; and how …

Recommending Transparency In Land-Based Investment: A Summary Of Relevant Guidelines And Principles, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

An emerging consensus on the need for greater transparency in land-based investment is increasingly evident across various forums. This document consolidates recommendations regarding transparency featured in guidelines and principles published by international organizations, government agencies, and multilateral or multi-stakeholder groups. Viewed together, these recommendations offer insight on the evolving narrative on transparency in land-based investment, assist stakeholders in addressing the issue of transparency, and provide an informed starting point for further analysis.

Periodic Review In Natural Resource Contracts, Jacky Mandelbaum, Salli Anne Swartz, John Hauert

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Periodic contract review mechanisms, which are provisions in contracts that formally require parties to meet at particular intervals to review the terms of the contract, are mechanisms that may facilitate the process of negotiating contractual changes to accommodate changing circumstances over the term of extractive industries contracts. Through the review of existing extractive industries agreements, this article considers how such review mechanisms have been incorporated into existing contracts and the use of such mechanisms as a tool for maintaining good relationships between the parties. In addition, the article suggests a new approach to the drafting of these mechanisms by negotiating …

Emerging Practices In Community Development Agreements, Jennifer Loutit, Jacqueline Mandelbaum, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Community Development Agreements (CDAs) have the potential to facilitate the delivery of tangible benefits from large-scale investment projects, such as mines or forestry concessions, to affected persons and communities. To be effective, however, CDAs must be adapted to the local context, meaning that no single model agreement or process will be appropriate in every situation. Nonetheless, leading practices are emerging which can be required by governments, voluntarily adopted by companies, and demanded by communities. These practices are grounded in ensuring that all parties are sufficiently informed, capacitated, and prepared to engage in meaningful negotiations regarding how the investor’s operations should …

Transnational Litigation As A Prisoner's Dilemma, Maya Steinitz, Paul Gowder

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article we use game theory to argue that perceptions of widespread corruption in the judicial processes in developing countries create ex ante incentives to act corruptly. It is rational (though not moral) to preemptively act corruptly when litigating in the courts of many developing nations. The upshot of this analysis is to highlight that, contrary to judicial narratives in individual cases — such as the (in)famous Chevron–Ecuador dispute used herein as an illustration — the problem of corruption in transnational litigation is structural and as such calls for structural solutions. The article offers one such solution: the establishment …

Emerging Practices In Community Development Agreements, Jennifer Loutit, Jacqueline Mandelbaum, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

A Community Development Agreement or CDA can be a vital mechanism for ensuring that local communities benefit from large-scale investment projects, such as mines or forestry concessions. In formalizing agreements between an investor and a project-affected community, CDAs set out how the benefits of an investment project will be shared with local communities. In some countries CDAs are required by domestic legislation; in others, they are entered into voluntarily. The most effective CDAs are also adapted to the local context, meaning that no single model agreement or process will be appropriate in every situation. Nonetheless, leading practices are emerging which …

The Technical Barriers To Trade Agreement: A Reconciliation Of Divergent Values In The Global Trading System, Samantha Gaul

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the context of multilateral trading, there is a historical tension between economically oriented, laissez-faire, pro-trade concerns as they are juxtaposed with social, environmental, and health concerns. These conflicting values are inextricable from one another in a world that encourages, and quite frankly mandates, a high level of economic interdependency. But what if institutional actors could reconcile these conflicting values—at least toward the more efficient and practical goals of alleviating (rather than eliminating) the underlying tension? This Note argues that Article 2.2 of the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement operates to reconcile these fundamental tensions to some …

Insiders Anonymous: The Third Circuit Rehabilitates Sec Rule 10b5-2(B)(2) And Extends Liability For Insider Trading To Non-Fiduciaries In United States V. Mcgee, 4 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 15 (2016), Scott Henry

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

This Article examines the development of insider trading law under SEC Rule 10b-5, and the Third Circuit Court’s decision in United States v. McGee to extend liability for securities fraud under Rule 10b5-(2)(b)(2) to corporate outsiders without a fiduciary relationship to the corporation in whose securities they trade.

The Extraterritorial Effects Of The Volcker Rule, 4 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 1 (2016), Liliya Bozhanova

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly referred to as the “Volcker Rule”, essentially prohibits “banking entities” from engaging in “proprietary trading” and from acquiring or retaining an ownership interest in, sponsoring, or having certain relationships with a hedge fund or a private equity fund. The rule has been controversial not only because of its substantive content but also due to its extraterritorial reach, which has a significant impact on foreign banking entities that have U.S. affiliates. The Volcker Rule’s extraterritoriality lies within the broad definition of the term “banking entity”, which includes not …

Regulation Automated Trading: Cftc Source Code Turnover Provision Is Unnecessary And Dangerous To U.S. Markets, 4 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 37 (2016), Thomas Laser

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

Over the past several decades, the financial markets have experienced a technological revolution in how securities and other financial instruments are traded. Where these contracts and assets were once traded on the floors of various registered brick and mortar exchanges across the globe, they are now primarily traded via online platforms. While allowing greater efficiency and transparency in the markets, this shift has also spawned the practice of high-frequency algorithmic trading. This process uses highly sophisticated computers and complex algorithms to trade securities and derivative products faster than the human eye can blink. Although many argue that high-frequency algorithmic trading …

A Trending Use Of Insulation And A Temporary Way Out, 4 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 51 (2016), Jennifer Leung

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

In order to understand the constitutionality of the SEC’s administrative process, Part II of this Article begins with a history of Article II’s Appointments Clause. Part III describes the competing theories resulting from a circuit split, specifically Hill v. Securities & Exchange Commission and Bebo v. Securities Exchange Commission. Part IV of this Article then evaluates the impact of the Appointments Clause on the Dodd-Frank Act and discusses the consequences of raising meritless constitutional questions that jeopardize the intent of the Dodd-Frank Act. Subsection IV.A. explains the exhaustion doctrine and subsection IV.B. explores Congress’s intent of implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, …

The Protection Of Pioneer Innovations – Lessons Learnt From The Semiconductor Chip Industry And Its Ip Law Framework, 32 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 151 (2016), Thomas Hoeren

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

In the second half of the 20th century, semiconductor technology as integrated circuits (IC), commonly known as microchips, became more and more dominating in our lives. Microchips are the control center of simple things like toasters as well as of complex high-tech machines for medical use. Of course, they also define the hearts of each computer. With the invention of semiconductor technology, a whole new economic sector began its rise and soon played a major role in the economies of the large industrial countries like the U.S., Japan and the EC. Especially, it stands out for its innovational power and …

The Icc And The Security Council: How Much Support Is There For Ending Impunity?, 26 Ind. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 33 (2016), Stuart Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tpp And Isds: The Challenge From Europe And The Proposed Ttip Investment Court, Ian A. Laird

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Remarks, David Johnston Gov. Gen.

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Securing Critical North American Infrastructure: A Comparatice Case Study In Cybersecurity Regulation, Scott J. Shackelford, Zachery Bohm

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Treating The New European Disease Of Consumer Debt In A Post-Communist State: The Groundbreaking New Russian Personal Insolvency Law, 41 Brook. J. Int'l L. 655 (2016), Jason J. Kilborn

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the tumultuous transition from restrictive Communism to the debt-fueled consumer economy of modern Russia. In particular, it surveys Russia’s legal response to severe debt distress, situating it in the context of nearly one thousand years of historical development. Effective 1 October 2015, Russia finally joined most of its European neighbors in adopting a personal bankruptcy law, with characteristics that reflect both evolving international best practices and a series of lessons not learned. This article offers the first detailed exposition in English of the two steps forward represented by this new law, as well as an evaluation of …

The Business Of Art Theft: Assessing Auction House Standard Of Care And The Sale Of Stolen Cultural Property, Alexandra M.S. Wilson

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Canada V. United States Of America, Rosemary A. Mccarney

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Dangers Of The Reference Question: Scc V. Scotus, Mark Mina Mikhaiel

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Expert Rountable Report On International Trade And North American Infrastructre, Expert Panel

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Lessons From Washington And Colorado: The Potential Financial Gains Of Recreational Marijuana To Canada, Nachshon Goltz, Ekaterina Bogdanov

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Promise Utility Doctrine And Compatibility Doctrine Under Nafta: Expropriation And Chapter 11 Considerations, Freedom-Kai Phillips

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Decentering Human Rights From The International Order Of States: The Alignment And Interaction Of Transnational Policy Channels, Radu G. Mares

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article accounts for recent developments in corporate social responsibility, international trade and investment law, international human rights law, development aid, and the laws of home states reaching extraterritorially in order to advance a regulatory perspective on commerce and human rights. While these developments are remarkable, the analysis documents the prevalence of softer strategies and a corresponding scarcity of coercive legalization strategies. The question, then, is how to reason about these recent developments and their genuine potential for human rights protection. The article proposes two elements-a root-cause orientation and the interaction of policy channels-as indispensable for a regulatory and systemic …

Foreign Assistance Complicity, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

When does a government’s provision of assistance to foreign armed groups cross the line from legitimate foreign policy to criminal aiding and abetting of those who use the aid to commit atrocities? The question presents one of the most difficult dilemmas in criminal justice, one that has deep normative implications and has provoked sharp splits among the U.S. federal courts and international tribunals that have faced it.

In 2013, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sent shockwaves through international legal circles when it acquitted former Yugoslav Army chief Momčilo Perišić of aiding and …