CISDL Trade, Investment & Finance Programme
Responds to SDG 8 Decent Work & Economic Growth; SDG 9 Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure; SDG 12 Responsible Consumption & Production; SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities & SDG 17 Partnerships
Prof. Markus Gehring, Lead Counsel & Marios Tokas, Programme Manager
Trade, investment and financial laws and policies could foster or frustrate sustainable development. Global economic growth is slowly resuming, and in 2021 world merchandise exports rose 8%. Alongside global rules and continuing, though hampered, dispute settlement in the World Trade Organization (WTO), global flows of foreign direct investment only recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, reaching $1.6 trillion (UNCTAD 2022 World Investment Report), and 796 Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) were notified (WTO RTA Gateway) in 2022. There is new impetus for international economic law to support a global green economy, and significant potential for international legal innovation. With slow progress in global trade round negotiations, widespread trade skepticism, Brexit, the growth of protectionism and the breakdown of the WTO dispute system new forms of economic cooperation are being developed and economic nationalism being opposed.
While a growing web of RTAs increasingly recognize sustainable development objectives; create exceptions for health, environment, natural resources and other public policies; address sustainability aspects of procurement, intellectual property rights, subsidies and investments; move from referencing climate change to making it an essential element, environmental goods, services and technologies; encourage sustainable energy, forestry and other resources use; highlight corporate social responsibility; and seek mutual supportiveness with social and environmental policies, these new ‘progressive’ trade agreements will be the focus of the research, especially when advancing the economic interests of indigenous peoples. Research into the impacts and opportunities of international investment law for sustainable development, and the possibilities for financial law, is also expanding exponentially. With many countries reforming their laws and institutions to implement new international instruments for a global green economy, there is a pressing need for legal expertise, capacity and advice.
In contribution to global efforts, through our Trade, Investment and Finance Programme in 2022-2027, CISDL aims to:
- Advance knowledge and understanding of international trade law for sustainable development within the context of progressive trade agreements respectful of human rights, indigenous rights, gender equality, climate change and broader sustainability; building global legal research and advisory capacity and disseminating key findings among trade regimes such as the WTO and RTAs.
- Lead legal research and build capacity to strengthen the contribution of international investment law toward sustainable development and which realises the SDGs and assists in the transition to net-zero, including in the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), BITs and investment chapters of RTAs.
- Analyse the implementation of trade, investment, and financial law regimes, including innovative legal practices and recent disputes related to sustainable banking, energy, aviation, the World Bank, the Energy Charter Treaty, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization and other related fora.
- Research and build capacity on the concept of the global green economy, especially how national and international law facilitates the transition to a greener, carbon neutral, biological diverse economy and how such instruments interact with existing international social, environmental, and economic legal frameworks.
Lead Counsel: Prof. Markus Gehring, Dr iur. (Hamb), J.S.D. & LLM (Yale), MA (Cantab), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge and Civil Law Section, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
Programme Manager: Marios Tokas, LLB. LLM (Athens), MIL, PhD Cand. (Graduate Institute)
Legal Research Fellowship: Dr. Avidan Kent, PhD (Cantab), LLM (McGill), Faculty of Law, University of East Anglia, Norwich; Prof Jarrod Hepburn, DPhil, MPhil, BCL (Oxon), LLB, BA (Melbourne); Emily Morison, LLB, JD (Sydney), LLM (Cantab); Dr. Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan, Dr iur (Muenster), Assessor; University of Cambridge (UK); Dr Alexandra Harrington, DCL (McGill), LLM (McGill) JD (Albany) (USA), BA (NYU); Eric Kassongo, LLB (Kinshasa) (DR Congo); Mrs. Cairo Robb, Cambridge (UK); Mr. Rodrigo Mella, LLM (NYU), LLB (UChile) (Chile); Adv Sean Stephenson JD, LL.L, (Ottawa) LL.M. (UCL) (Canada); Prof Javiera Caceres Bustamante, BA (Catholic Uni Chile), MA (UChile); Adv Christian Delev, PhD Cand. (Cantab.) (UK); Prof Gaetane Schaeken Willemaers, LL.B., LL.M., PhD (UMich) (UK).
CISDL Legal Specialist Award
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2022: Prof. Javiera Caceres, Universidad de Chile, Chile
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2021: Adv. Vesselina Haralampieva, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2020: Dr. Avidan Kent, University of East Anglia, UK
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2019: Adv. Sean Stephenson, Dentons
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2018: Adv. Erick Kassongo, Centre Congolais pour le Droit du Développement Durable (CODED), Congo
Key Publications
- Sustainable Development in World Trade Law by Markus Gehring and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (eds.) (Kluwer 2011): Trade, investment, and competition law practitioners and negotiators in developed and developing countries as well as development and environment law professionals with responsibility for trade and WTO law related matters are provided with constructive, timely and accessible expert analysis of recent discussions and advances in the field, providing an integrated and essential guide to some of the most important issues in international economic law today.
- Sustainable Development in World Investment Law by Markus Gehring and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger and Andrew Newcombe (eds.) (Kluwer 2011): This work provides insights in developments in investment law negotiations and jurisprudence from a sustainable development law perspective and answers to pertinent questions concerning advancements in investment law, including the negotiation of numerous regional and bilateral agreements as well as the increasing number of disputes resolved in the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
- World Trade Law in Practice by Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Markus W. Gehring and Jarrod Hepburn (Globe Law and Business, 2007): World Trade Law in Practice presents international trade law in a clear, step-by-step manner, with short sections at the end of each chapter on how to find further information and explanations of key concepts and procedures.
- Transparency in International Investment Arbitration by Dr Markus Gehring, Dimitrij Euler and Maxi Scherer (Cambridge University Press, 2015): This in-depth commentary is dedicated to the analyses of transparency in international investment law and the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration, one of the most innovative developments in international law.
- Athena’s Treaties: Crafting International Trade and Investment Accords for Sustainable Development by Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Oxford University Press, 2021): With this book, measures of the WTO and adopted by States in a selection of innovative and flexible regional and bilateral trade and investment accords are examined. With legal examples spanning decades of experimentation and experience, the book explains how States and stakeholders are seeking innovative ways to integrate environmental and social considerations into trade and investment agreements through introducing a ground-breaking systematic approach.
- Sustainable Development, International Aviation, and Treaty Implementation by Armand L.C. de Mestral, P. Paul Fitzgerald, and Md. Tanveer Ahmad (Cambridge University Press 2018): The many dimensions of the effort to contain greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft in a manner consonant with the principles of sustainable development, and the development of international law and policy is examined in the area of international civil aviation, proposing solutions of air law and sustainable development law specialists.
- Europe’s Second Constitution: Crisis, Courts and Community by Markus Gehring (Cambridge University Press 2020): This work explains the process of European constitutionalisation and the extensive scepticism in current national legal and political spheres and in broader circles of public opinion across Europe.
- Christian Delev, ‘Ratcheting up Environmental Protection Standards: What are the Opportunities for Improving the EU-Andes Trade Agreement?’ (2022)
- Javiera Cáceres, Marios Tokas, Markus Gehring, Fabiano de Andrade Correa, ‘Environment and Climate Change in the Draft EU- Mercosur Trade Agreement Legal Analysis and Proposed Provisions Environment and Climate Change in the Draft EU-Mercosur: Trade Agreement Legal Analysis and Proposed Provision’ (2021), CISDL Expert Paper.
- Avidan Kent and Sebastian Behrman, ‘Climate-induced migration: Will tribunals save the day?’ (2021) Hong Kong Journal of Law and Public Affairs, 2(2).