09 Jul ISDS & Strategy Assignment

Background

The major goal of this assignment is for the students dive deeper into the contemporary debate on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and critically reflect different position on this highly controversial topic. At the core of the ISDS process, the main actors involved and affected by ISDS are the internationalized firms, host country public officials, and host country stakeholders.

The initiation of ISDS is triggered by an alleged violation of investor rights. The most common violations are listed on slide # 99 of the Session 1__IA & foreign investors. They are also the most common risk which are discussed in the political risk management literature (see for example the lecturecast “Background__The cost of political risks).

The assignment

Think about implications of the risks and the mitigation strategy for this risk using ISDS to investors and host country actors (public officials, stakeholders) respectively. In this regards, pick out a research context, real world events or other practical example, which exposes firms to risks and describe how this risk affects these firms. Thereafter, change the point of view and tell us possible ramifications for host country stakeholders. For inspiration and existing opinions and findings use databases, newspaper, research articles, books, arbitration blogs etc. (for more details watch the Lecturecast Assignment 2 ). Based on that, write a short critical essay according to the following rules:

The maximum length of the essay is 5,000 words. Use the style guide of the Journal of International Business Studies. It is an individual assignment by each student, but independent of the choice of the topic, risk-event and firms you choose, the paper follows always the same simple structure of 3 chapters.

• Chapter 1: Risk OR critical topic & ISDS
• Chapter 2: Critical Discussion of a risk angle OR critical topic in context of ISDS from the view of investors and host-country actors (public officials, stakeholders) 
• Chapter 3: What do we learn from the evidence raised in the critical discussion of (a) the corporate point of view and (b) the stakeholder point of view?  Base your conclusions on the evidence presented in the paper

Ad 1 (500 words): Describe the risk and its role and importance in context of ISDS. Provide some descriptive statistics (Is it happening frequently? Which firms are exposed to the risk? How do firms normally respond to the risk? Are there differences between MNCs and foreign SMEs).

Ad 2 (1,150 words): Use the sources to research the corporate and stakeholder point of view (for inspiration refer the links at the bottom of this assignment).  Introduce both views and critically discuss them in context of ISDS in context of the risk you introduced in chapter 1. 

Ad 3 (1,150 words): Based on the evidence shown in chapter 2, you conclude with some  major learnings for corporations and stakeholders: Which arguments support and which arguments could be brought against these views? (The discussion should be critical but also well balanced if there are positive and negative aspects for both sides).

For inspiration of critical topics in ISDS  – see the upcoming lecturecasts or live session on Zoom respectively. Figure out another critical mismatch of firm interests and host country interest from your own research and explain it in your essay. Two of many controversial topics are:
i) Do investors use ISDS to force host countries to roll back unfair regulations or do they undermine the regulatory capabilities and influence law making in the host countries?
ii) Do firms want a fair ruling on their disputes with host country actors or do they want to make money by suing host states?

Grading criteria 
– A good paper will exactly address the required contents as stated above. Try to be as focused as possible and make sure that chapter 1, 2 and 3 follow a consistent logic but it should not repeat the same contents. While chapter 1 and 2 can be more descriptive, chapter 3 should be an analysis, in which you use the facts presented in chapter 1 and the knowledge in chapter 2 to critically discuss the opportunities but but also harm of firm strategies.
-Be specific with the framing of your topic. A good paper outlines the debate but also provides specific examples and discuss them critically from both views : the investors and the stakeholders.
-Please stick to the structure (3 chapters) and the approximate lengths of overall paper (maximum of 5,000 words). Quality trumps lengths of the paper.