The Treatment and Taxation of Foreign Invesment Under International Law: Toward International Disciplines (Melland Schill Studies In International Law Series)

Book Description
The Treatment and Taxation of Foreign Investment Under International Law is an important critique of foreign investment and taxation under international law. Each of these areas is complex in its own right but an understanding of their inter-relationship is crucial. The treatment ranges widely from classical issues of sovereignty, the establishment of international standards and the application of international principles of jurisdiction through to the dynamics of taxation and foreign investment within free trade paradigms of the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. Close attention is given to the political and legal ideologies at issue and the tensions within and between them. The book concludes by looking forward to how international disciplines on foreign investment can be developed in the light of environmental, social and other concerns, questions of forum and the prospects for a future multilateral agreement on investment. The Treatment and Taxation of Foreign Investment Under International Law focus’ is on two aspects of the treatment of foreign investment by states: the general rules concerning access, operation and expropriation of foreign investment and the lex specialis of international taxation. The central concerns of the book are the ideological content of the international law rules in these areas, the changes in that ideological content over time and the implications of this for the international community and for the discipline of international law. Particular attention is paid to the implications for developing states which have in the past resisted the international law rules relating to the expropriation of foreign investment and sought instead the development of a new international economic order including inter alia the establishment of binding rules addressing the behavior of transnational corporations (TNCs). In the field of taxation, attention has focused on the imperative to establish a level playing field for firms with foreign investors, particularly by addressing double taxation problems; and on the need to develop rules and cooperation mechanisms to limit anti-social behavior by TNCs, such as tax evasion and transfer pricing. In this study traditional legal approaches are first outlined, then a range of recent developments examined. An attempt is made to trace the development of new legal concepts and techniques in different contexts and locations: in bilateral relations, in multilateral conventions and negotiations and in regional economic integration systems. In relation to both foreign investment and taxation, a central question is whether states can agree to subsume their individual sovereign personae and interests within a supranational legal order so as to move closer to an optimal solution A final theme which emerges concerns the actors in the international law arena. It is increasingly the case that states do not have a monopoly on law-making in the international community and this is evident in relation to the treatment and taxation of foreign investment and elsewhere. It is therefore pertinent to consider the role of other actors in shaping the negotiating processes and the outcomes of such processes, and the wider contribution this makes to the discipline of international law. The Treatment and Taxation of Foreign Investment Under International Law will be of interest to academics, practicing lawyers and students interested in international law, international economic law and international economic relations. Format Of Chapters Chapters 1 and 2 outline the traditional international law concerning the treatment of foreign investment and review the efforts of states unilaterally, bilaterally and multilaterally to develop and secure standards for the treatment of foreign investment, prior to the conclusion of the WTO Agreement. Chapters 3 and 4 then repeat this exercise in relation to the taxation of foreign inve

About the Author
Fiona C. Beveridge is Lecturer in Law in the International and European Law Unit at the University of Liverpool.


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  An important critique of foreign investment and taxation under international law. Each of these areas is complex in its own right but an understanding of their inter-relationship is crucial. The treatment ranges widely from classical issues of sovereignty, the establishment of international standards and the application of international principles of jurisdiction through to the dynamics of taxation and foreign investment within free trade paradigms of the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. Close attention is given to the political and legal ideologies at issue and the tensions within and between them. The book concludes by looking forward to how international disciplines on foreign investment can be developed in the light of environmental, social and other concerns, questions of forum and the prospects for a future multilateral agreement on investment. The Treatment and Taxation of Foreign Investment Under International Law focus￯﾿ﾽ is on two aspects of the treatment of foreign investment by states: the general rules concerning access, operation and expropriation of foreign investment and the lex specialis of international taxation. The central concerns of the book are the ideological content of the international law rules in these areas, the changes in that ideological content over time and the implications of this for the international community and for the discipline of international law. Particular attention is paid to the implications for developing states which have in the past resisted the international law rules relating to the expropriation of foreign investment and sought instead the development of a new international economic order including inter alia the establishment of binding rules addressing the behavior of transnational corporations (TNCs). In the field of taxation, attention has focused on the imperative to establish a level playing field for firms with foreign investors, particularly by addressing double taxation problems; and on the need to develop rules and cooperation mechanisms to limit anti-social behavior by TNCs, such as tax evasion and transfer pricing. In this study traditional legal approaches are first outlined, then a range of recent developments examined. An attempt is made to trace the development of new legal concepts and techniques in different contexts and locations: in bilateral relations, in multilateral conventions and negotiations and in regional economic integration systems. In relation to both foreign investment and taxation, a central question is whether states can agree to subsume their individual sovereign personae and interests within a supranational legal order so as to move closer to an optimal solution A final theme which emerges concerns the actors in the international law arena. It is increasingly the case that states do not have a monopoly on law-making in the international community and this is evident in relation to the treatment and taxation of foreign investment and elsewhere. It is therefore pertinent to consider the role of other actors in shaping the negotiating processes and the outcomes of such processes, and the wider contribution this makes to the discipline of international law.


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