CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

ONDŘEJ SVOBODA CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ collection first introduces the reader to Sornarajah’s work and subsequently develops upon a broad range of his concerns recently put forward in attempts to negotiate megaregional trade and investment treaties such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP). The opening contribution by Ken Vandevelde tracks the origins of international investment law based on liberal economic theory. The second essay by Leon Trackman and David Musayelyan focuses on the current state of affairs of the investment protection regime analysing the growing rejection of investor-state arbitration. Probably the most critical and the least convincing at the same time is Gus Van Harten’s part, in which he argues that efforts to reform the system failed to address all the shortcomings and that the only solution is withdrawal from the system. This view, however, disregards an important advancement recognised by a majority of interested parties, the most prominent example of which is the area of transparency. David Schneiderman’s contributions are devoted to investment lawyers and scholars and their reaction to the backlash. In his work, Schneiderman provides an interesting view of this particular professional community. Peter Muchlinski analyses the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa’s (COMESA) 2007 Common Investment Area Agreement, which, he concludes, represents a new and more balanced generation of investment treaties. Also, Karl Sauvant is more optimistic over the future when discussing a code of conduct for transnational corporations. The following two texts take a look at the development of investment policies of the two emerging economic powerhouses as India is the topic of Aniruddha Rajput and China is at the centre of Wenhua Shan and Hongrui Chen’s attention. The next set of essays addresses some of the concrete problematic issues associated with investment treaties. Kyla Tienhaara and Todd Tucker focus on regulation of foreign investment through retrospection on the Methanex case. Howard Mann examines the relationship between economic rights of foreign investors and government policy space for economic development. Drafting of a fair and equitable treatment standard is analysed by Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder. C. L. Lim asks whether the umbrella clause is just another treaty clause and Jean Ho whether State contracts are a matter of the past or the future. A new element in foreign investment regulation is indeed sovereign wealth funds. The question of appropriate rules for them is addressed by Jiangyu Wang. Finally, C. L. Lim brings the book to a close, discussing Sornarajah’s later work based on a legal-sociological method. Since the book represents a body of high quality critical writing in the field of investment law, two marginal deficiencies slightly diminish the overall high appraisal of the book. The name of the volume does not fully correspond to its content, because it does not offer any coherent vision on future development, rather it discusses current issues and phenomena. Further, the organisation of the book is divided into seven parts but in spite of editor’s introductory explanation of the structure, this might lead to a lack of coherency. Chapters are without names, vary in their length significantly and it is not evident what rationale is behind the grouping of selected contributions. Despite this, the book is a rich collection of distinctive critical essays providing food for thought for every investment lawyer. A more complete and consistent „alternative vision“ for the future direction of investment law is, however, offered in Jürgen Kurtz’s book The WTO and International Investment Law: Converging Systems . In his book, Kurt seeks to identify “the vectors by which both regimes

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