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1 - Colonialism of Investment Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2022

David Schneiderman
David Schneiderman
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Did colonialism end with decolonization? This chapter identifies threads of discursive continuity between historic colonialism and the contemporary regime for the protection of foreign investment. Those threads concern a single-minded focus on profitability and privilege, the claim that domination produces economic improvement, a prevailing distrust of local self-rule and the construction of enclaves that preserve legal entitlements for privileged classes of foreigners. Each of these features, found in colonial forms of argumentation documented by Albert Memmi and Frantz Fanon, among others, are inscribed in the discourse and practices of investment treaty law and arbitration.

Keywords

investment lawcolonialismprofitabilityimprovementdemocratic distrust
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Chapter
Information
Investment Law's Alibis
Colonialism, Imperialism, Debt and Development
 , pp. 16 - 37
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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