Regionalism in International Investment Law

Regionalism in International Investment Lawprovides a multinational perspective on international investment law. In it, distinguished academics and practitioners provide a critical and comprehensive understanding of issues in a field which has grown exponentially in its importance particularly over the last decade, focusing on the European Union, Australia, North America, Asia, and China. The book approaches the field of foreign direct investment from both academic and practical viewpoints and analyzes different bilateral, regional, and multinational agreements, often yielding competing perspectives. The academic perspective yields a strong conceptual foundation to often misunderstood elements of international investment law, while the practical perspective aids those actively pursuing foreign direct investment in better understanding the landscape, identifying potential conflicts which may arise, in more accurately assessing the risk underlying the issues in conflict and in resolving those issues. Thorny issues relating to global commerce, sovereignty, regulation, expropriation, dispute resolution, and investor protections are covered, depicting how they have developed and are applied in different regions of the world. These different treatments ensure that readers are able grasp the subject matter at multiple levels and provide a comprehensive overview of developments in the field of foreign direct investment.

Leon Trakman is Professor of Law and Immediate Past Dean, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. He has been appointed distinguished or visiting professor at the University of California, Davis; University of Wisconsin; McGill University; Tulane; and University of Cape Town. He has been awarded a Bora Laskin National Fellowship and a Killam Senior Fellowship, both in Canada. Professor Trakman is the author and editor of 8 books and over 100 articles on international commercial arbitration and international trade and investment law.

As an international commercial arbitrator and mediator, Professor Trakman has served extensively as an inter-governmental trade adjudicator. He was appointed by US, Canadian and Mexican Governments under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and before then, under the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Professor Trakman is a barrister in New South Wales, Australia, a barrister and solicitor in Nova Scotia, Canada and an advocate in South Africa. He holds masters and doctorate degrees in Law, both earned at the Harvard Law School.


Nick Ranieri is in private practice, consulting clients on NAFTA related issues. He obtained his doctorate from the Tulane School of Law and is admitted to the Bars of Ontario and New York, as well as other bars in the United States. He was the Director of the Centro Juridico Para el Comercio Inter-Americana in Monterrey, Mexico and has served as a Panelist under the NAFTA Chapter 19 panel process dealing antidumping and subsidies matters. His professional experience has included counseling state entities on the creation of free trade zones as well as counseling private entities on issues dealing with foreign investment and expropriation. He has written on subjects relating to international trade and investment and has lectured at the ITESM School of Law. He was a founding member of the NAFTA Consortium on Legal Education and served on various alternative dispute resolution bodies throughout North America.