GLOBAL INVESTMENT LAW AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: AN INCLUSIVE REGULATION FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract

A global investment law regime during the last decades has strengthened the domination of foreign investor interest upon the developing countries policies. Through some instruments including the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and the mechanism of Investment-State Dispute Settlement (ISDs), the investor’s interest is often placed above the citizens’ social and economic rights, especially the lower-class economic groups. This article studies the urgency of international investment law reformation by using multidiscipline approach, based on the economic legal theory of Richard and Eric A. Posner, and also Rawlsian social justice principle and the national economic sovereignty. This article argues that developing countries need to design an inclusive regulation which does not only facilitates investment, but also protects the rights upon work, land, living environment, and economic justice distribution. By examining some case studies and challenges on national policy, this writing tries to emphasize the importance of investment law reconstruction as a part of people welfare legal politics.