Spring 2014
5397 Transnational Petroleum Law and Investment in Latin America - CARDENAS- 23712

Professor(s): Julian Cardenas Garcia (ENERGY SCHOLAR)

Credits: 3

Course Areas: Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law 

Time: 6:00p-7:30p  MWLocation:  

Course Outline: This course is designed to present transactional and litigation cases involving Latin American oil producing countries on issues of international investment law, international arbitration, human rights and environmental law, which considered altogether make a significant contribution to the development of a transnational petroleum law.

Over the last decade, Latin America has been renowned as a strategic region for business in the international oil industry. The region is rich in natural resources and hydrocarbons reserves, and has attracted oil companies from all over the world to participate in upstream mega projects in traditional and emerging markets. However, it has been also the scenario of transnational litigation involving States and foreign investors, caused by expropriation waves, tax reforms and environmental claims.

The course will provide tools to develop legal skills acting as in-house counsel or as international attorney in the petroleum industry, such as:

1) Recognize petroleum industry best practices from State and Non-State sources of law applicable to petroleum investment projects, based in the review of petroleum contracts, petroleum industry standards and arbitration awards.

2) Identify new trends in transnational compliance and litigation involving petroleum transactions in Latin America, in order to improve expertise on risk allocation, investment protection and regulation of foreign investment.

3) Become familiar with the review of Bilateral Investment Treaties and Multilateral Investment Treaties, and the most relevant investment arbitration rules such as ICSID, ICC and UNCITRAL rules.

4) Build a broad perspective of petroleum national regulation and transactions in seven countries in Latin America: Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

Course Syllabus:

Course Notes:   

Prerequisites:  

First Day Assignments:

Final Exam Schedule: 05/07 6-9pm      

This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:

Satisfies Skills Course Requirement: No
Satisfies Senior Writing Requirement: No