Webinar: COVID-19 Response Measures and the Protection of Foreign Direct Investments

Protecting Legitimate Expectations or Cashing In On the Pandemic?
28 January 2021, 3-6 pm CET, Zoom platform

Free registration is required, join the webinar here.

The Global Pandemic Network, and its partner institutions University of Hasselt and University of Copenhagen – Centre for International Law and Governance, are pleased to invite you to the webinar ‘Covid-19 Response Measures and the Protection of Foreign Direct Investments: Protecting Legitimate Expectations or Cashing In On the Pandemic?’.

International investment law has been particularly affected by policy measures adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On one hand, governments have manifested their concern that the economic turbulence related to the pandemic might be exploited by foreign investors for the ‘predatory acquisition’ of strategic assets, introducing tighter rules for a more careful screening of foreign direct investments (FDIs). On the other hand, foreign investors negatively affected by national response measures have threatened legal challenges before arbitration tribunals, giving rise to a vivid debate on the opportunity of a moratorium on investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS). Taking stock of these developments, this webinar provides a timely appraisal of the emerging frictions between the defense of competing national and supranational interests and the promotion of foreign investments in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

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