Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:26:14.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Imperialism of Investment Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2022

David Schneiderman
David Schneiderman
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

This chapter resurrects notions of empire, associated with colonial and neo-colonial relations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with international investment law. Affinities with imperial legal forms are highlighted, drawing upon Mohammad Bedjaoui’s book-length intervention in support of the New International Economic Order. The chapter invokes the distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ empire and postulates that contemporary investment law exhibits affinities with informal empire but also reveals aspects of formal empire. The chapter highlights how contemporary legal rule constrains political capacity in the periphery as did imperial rule via formal and informal means. By interrogating investment law through the lens of empire, this chapter aims to reconnect law to politics in an age when imperial forms continue to proliferate.

Keywords

investment lawimperialismformal and informal empirepolitical capacitydemocratic mistakes
Type
Chapter
Information
Investment Law's Alibis
Colonialism, Imperialism, Debt and Development
 , pp. 38 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×