International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability

Description

International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability provides a clear and concise insight into the relationship between the institutions that govern foreign investment, sustainable development and the rules and regulations that administer natural resources. In this book, several leading experts explore different perspectives in how investment and natural resources come together to achieve sustainable development in developing countries with examples from water, oil and gas, renewable energy, mineral, agriculture, and carbon trading. Despite varying perspectives, it is clear that several themes are central in considering the linkages between natural resources, investment and sustainability. Specifically, transparency, good governance and citizen empowerment are vital conditions which encourage positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for developing countries. In addition, this book provides new insights into key concepts which underpin international law, including sovereign rights and state responsibility principles. It is clear from this book that in the attempt to reconcile these concepts and principles from separate legal regimes, complex policy questions emerge whereby it is difficult to attain mutually beneficial or succinct outcomes. This book explores how countries prioritise their policy objectives to achieve their notion of sustainable natural resource use, which is strongly influenced by power imbalances that inform North–South cooperation, as well as South–South cooperation in the international investment regime. This book will be of great interest to students, academics and researchers of international environmental law, international human rights law, international investment law and international economic law. This book may also be of relevance to environmentalists, policy-makers, NGOs, and investors working in the natural resources field. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Notes on contributors List of acronyms and abbreviations Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Part I Natural resources law and investment law: Interactions Foreword 1 International natural resources law and sustainable investment: Principles and practices 2 Sovereign rights, state obligations and natural resources 3 Evolution of the permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the context of the investment regime Part II Balancing competing interests Foreword 4 Natural resources management and sustainable development in the WTO legal system: Implications for the investment regime 5 Natural resource protection in regional and bilateral investment agreements: In search of an equitable balance for promoting sustainable development 6 Arbitration and natural resource protection 7 Expropriation, nationalisation and resource protection – ‘resource nationalism’ and international law 8 Regulatory strategies, CSR and resource protection 9 State owned oil companies, North–South and South–South perspectives on investment Part III Changing dynamics Foreword 10 Water, investment and sustainability 11 Sustainable agricultural investment and the Global South 12 Sustainable mining, human rights and foreign investment: Nexus and challenges 13 International indigenous rights, investment and sustainability in the mining sector 14 Financing energy resources and sustainable development 15 Carbon trading as a climate change mitigation tool 16 Modern biofuels: The road to integrated sustainability Part IV Conflict, corruption and liability Foreword 17 Natural resources, conflict and investment: Conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the challenges to sustainable investment 18 Corruption, investment and natural resources 19 Criminal liability for exploitation of natural resources Index