Spring 2025
Professor(s):
Julian Cardenas Garcia (RESEARCH PROFESSOR)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law
International Law
Time: 4:00p-5:30p TTH Location: 311
Course Outline: The Transnational Investment Law and Arbitration course provides to JD and LLM students the tools to engage in complex transnational investment transactions in globalized sectors of the world economy. The course covers the transnational regulation that governs long-term investments in transnational sectors such as oil and gas, mining, electricity, international construction projects and housing. During the last 60 years, more than 2800 Investment Treaties have been agreed between States in order to promote the development of investment projects by providing special protection to foreign investors. Also, Multilateral Investment Treaties such as USMCA or the Energy Charter Treaty create a network of transnational standards that govern the business relations in a transnational community of States and investors. Also, during the last 25 years, these transnational standards have been under the scrutiny of international arbitration tribunals which have contributed to the development of a system of investment law and promoting a transnational legal practice for lawyers and corporations. Therefore, in order to be part of the construction of this new system for transnational investment transactions, the course features special training on the interconnection of sources of law such as investment contracts, investment treaties, industry practices, national regulations and arbitration awards and decisions, and provides an overview of a transnational legal practice in a globalized economy.
1) An overview of international investment arbitration: history and statistics.
2) The notion of investment, relations between foreign investors, shareholders, state and state companies.
3) The network of sources of law that govern transnational investment transactions.
4) The consent of international arbitration related to investment transactions: Contracts, Treaties, and National Law.
5) Rules of Jurisdiction: ratione materiae, ratione personae and ratione temporis. Treaty Shopping strategies.
6) Rules of Arbitration Procedure: The rules for arbitration of different institutions such as ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA, and SCC. The arbitrability of Disputes, objections of jurisdictions, and provisional measures.
7) The Applicable Law to the jurisdiction and merits phase of an investment dispute
8) Bilateral Investment Treaties Standards: Expropriation, fair and equitable treatment, national treatment, most favored nation treatment, security and protection clauses, umbrella clauses, survival clauses, and free transfer of funds.
9) The Arbitration Award.
10) The annulment of an arbitral award. The challenge of an award before national courts and ICSID Ad hoc Committee.
11) The transnational recognition and enforcement of arbitration awards.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Prerequisites:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: No
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Available
Course Materials
No book required for this course
