Investment Law

What We Want

International Investment Law has developed from a fringe subject for a small number of highly specialized lawyers to a mainstream subject that is increasingly important for countries, governments, business, and the legal profession as a whole.

With more than 2,500 BITs in force, as well as hundreds of free trade and related agreements that also provide some form of investor protection and/or investor-state dispute settlement, int'l investment law expertise is needed around the world every day. However,

while the academic and professional literature has been growing rapidly and there are by now many excellent textbooks, casebooks, commentaries, and manuals available for all levels of research and advocacy, the majority of these works are expensive and largely unavailable to students and even professionals in the less wealthy countries around the globe;
even in the developed countries, law school courses on int'l investment law are still few and far between; in many countries, high quality courses are simply not available at all;
in addition, the literature and courses that do exist often represent a particular world-view while alternative views and voices are underrepresented.

The Investment Law Group is pursuing gender parity and representation of all regions, legal systems, and legal cultures around the world and has set out to address these problems with four distinct but complementary projects:

Project One is the production of a high quality multi-author textbook that will be made available at cost and, more importantly, will also be distributed open source = free of charge online.

Project Two is about the production of cutting-edge analysis and proposals for the future development of international investment law originating from that same group of diverse and different experts. These papers will be published in academic journals and in book form.

Project Three is the production of sophisticated online teaching modules, based on the open source textbook, and also disseminated free of charge.

Last but not least, Project Four is a compilation of literature and useful websites and other resources to supplement the other Projects and to support students, researchers, and professionals working in the field. This part will list, in particular, freely accessible material, in line with our mission of making top quality information and teaching materials available to everyone, and specifically in the less-wealthy countries of the world.

Anyone can ask to be added to our list serve and receive occasional updates by e-mail about our work. We are also actively seeking donations, as well as suggestions for potential sources of funding and other support. Experienced investment lawyers seeking to contribute actively to our work, in particular experts based in Africa, Asia, and Central- or Latin America, are encouraged to submit a letter of interest and CV. Inquiries can be sent to the project administrator KonstantinaKloufetos@gmail.com.