Following on the heels of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development‘s (UNCTAD’s) 2015 World Investment Report (WIR), which offers a menu of options for the reform of the International Investment Agreements (IIA) regime, together with a roadmap to guide policymakers at the national, bilateral, regional and multilateral levels, this Conference will dive deeper into the practical steps countries have taken to reshape their IIAs. It will review the issues, processes and possible next steps for governments pursuing further IIA review and reform.

Discussed in the sessions prior to Session VI: Moving forward with IIA Reform will be potential and current national, bilateral and regional IIA reforms. But they have also highlighted the limits of pursuing unilateral and bilateral actions on a relatively piecemeal basis given the thousands IIAs that exist, the truly international issues that they implicate, and the gaps and inconsistencies that result from uncoordinated action. There therefore seems to be an important role for multilateral action that can help achieve the objectives of all stakeholders.

Session VI: Moving forward with IIA Reform (Nov. 11 from 2:30 – 5:00 PM) seeks to identify areas of future multilateral action and outline what roles international organizations, civil society, academia, the private sector and other individuals and entities can play in pushing that action forward. It aims at identifying concrete steps that diverse stakeholders can pursue to advance comprehensive, sustainable-development related IIA reform at the multilateral level.

Moderator:
Lisa Sachs, Director, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Panelists:

• Matteo Barra, Expert Officer on International Energy Investments, Energy Charter Secretariat (ECS)
• Gonzalo Flores, Team Leader, Legal Counsel, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
• David Gaukrodger, Senior Legal Adviser, Investment Division, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• Timothy Lemay, Principal Legal Officer and Head of the Legislative Branch of the International Trade Law Division, Office of Legal Affairs, Secretariat, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
• Manuel Perez-Rocha, Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
• Karl P. Sauvant, Resident Senior Fellow, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
• James Zhan, Director, Investment and Enterprise Division, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Register for and get more information on the full conference.