Date: May 07, 2009
Time: 08:30 am - 11:00 am
Venue: SGV Hall, 3/F AIM Conference Center Manila, Benavidez corner Trasierra Streets Legaspi Village, Makati City.
Recent Developments in International Investments Law:
A Lecture-Forum featuring Prof. Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer
Bilateral investment treaties and regional economic partnership agreements are becoming more evident in Southeast Asian countries. At the same time, the legal frameworks surrounding the treaties are evolving considerably. There is then a need to be familiar with the developments and trends especially since these treaties directly influence the economic development goals of the countries involved.
As part of AIM Policy Center’s interest in looking at economic integration in ASEAN and Europe-Asia relationship, it convened representatives from the from the legal profession, the academe and government for a lecture-forum entitled “Recent Developments in International Investments Law featuring Prof. Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer”. This is in cooperation with the Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung, the Philippine Board of Investments and the UP College of Law. Prof. Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer is one of the world’s best-known international law experts, a German Constitutional Court expert, and Director of the Institute for International Law - University of Bonn.
The main objective of the project was to capture the ideas and recommendations of Prof. Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer in light of the current trends in international investments law and the advantages and disadvantages of bilateral investment treaties. Two days later, he had a confidential session in the same subject matter with around 50 government lawyers.
Around 120 participants, mostly legal practitioners from the government, attended the lecture-forum. There were almost 60 representatives from the country’s inter-agency committee on investments, namely, the Board of Investments, the Office of the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Department of Finance, Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Office of the President. The lecture-forum was also graced by 10 members of the Philippine Judicial Academy headed by Justice Oswaldo D. Agcaoili and Justice Sixto Marella, Jr. Participants from the academe were mainly students, alumni, and professors of the UP College of Law. There were also several students from Arellano University School of Law, Ateneo de Manila Law School, Asian Institute of Management, DLSU College of Law and San Sebastian College-Recoletos. Major law firms in the country such as Sycip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan and Suarez & Narvasa Law Firm also sent their representatives to the event.
Mr. Klaus Preschle, Country Representative of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, gave the opening remarks. He stressed the importance of undertaking issues such as bilateral investment treaties in the programs of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung with the AIM Policy Center especially since 2009 marks the 60th year of the German Constitution.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer made a robust discussion of the current issues that most countries face when engaging in bilateral and multilateral treaties. He did not only discuss the trends that emerge from the arbitration tribunals but his predictions of the future trends. He focused on the need to pay attention to customary international laws and how it relate to the usual clauses that are found in investment treaties such as the most favoured nation, fair and equitable treatment, and national treatment. He explained the concepts mostly by citing country cases like that of Argentina and China. This generated positive reactions from the audience since the stakeholders are very much concerned on how the most favoured nation clause (MFN) becomes a substantive part of the obligations of both the investor and hosted countries.
After that, a response was delivered by Prof. Ma. Lourdes A. Sereno, Executive Director of the AIM Policy Center. She discussed the necessity to have a management system in place in order to minimize the legal risks for the country, especially since we already entered to around 38 to 42 treaties. She also raised the complex issue of the umbrella clause and the need to protect our negotiations and to guard the language in our treaties in order to avoid a situation where the contracts that the country signs turn into a treaty violation under investment law.
In the open forum, Prof. Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer also answered several questions such as the significance of entering into these bilateral treaties given that there are already domestic laws in place, and also about cases on environmental protection and on what constitute acts of expropriation.
The event ended with the closing remarks given by Prof. Sereno.
