Private International Law

In the Chinese calendar, 2015 was the year of the sheep: a follower rather than a leader. Yet for international investment law, 2015 was a year of transformation, signaling a possible reorientation along a new path. This Insight reflects on some of the key moments reflecting such a transformation or reorientation in treaty law and practice: the draft model bilateral investment treaties of India and Norway, the public release of the agreed text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the European Commission’s proposal for a new investment court.

On June 26, 2014, the Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted resolution 26/9, establishing an intergovernmental working group mandated to “elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.”[1]  Yet one day later, the HRC adopted resolution 26/22.