ASEAN`s Regional Investment Treaties and Southeast Asian BITs

30 March 2015, Monday  12.00pm – 1.30pm 
Lunch included
Federal Bartholomew Conference Room, Federal Building, NUS (BTC)
Dissecting the Interplay of Regional and Bilateral Rulemaking:
ASEAN’s Regional Investment Treaties and Southeast Asian BITs
by Prof. Dr. Diane A. Desierto
University of Hawaii
ABSTRACT
The formal start of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community on 31
December 2015 illustrates the complex dynamics of States’ participation in parallel regional and bilateral
rulemaking in international law. In contrast to the reticence of the European Union over the Trans-Atlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, ASEAN has more ambitiously concluded six major
investment treaties/investment chapters in free trade agreements (FTAs) with its key economic partners (e.g.
ASEAN-India in 2014, ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement in 2009, ASEAN-Korea in 2009, ASEANChina in 2010, Chapter 11 of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA, Chapter 7 of the 2008 ASEAN-Japan FTA)
since the entry into force of the ASEAN Charter in 2008.
ASEAN remains in the process of negotiating or considering other regional arrangements through the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the United States (pursuant to TIFA), and potentially
the European Union and Canada, while individual Southeast Asian states continue to maintain their
respective bilateral investment treaty (BIT) programs and FTAs. This seminar will discuss the initial findings of
the author’s ongoing technical analyses of the interplay between the ASEAN regional investment treaties and
Southeast Asian BITs for the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Investment, specifically over issues affecting
the quality of foreign investment protection, the diversity of regional and individual State investment
monitoring in Southeast Asia, States’ public policies, and the viability of investor-State dispute settlement
(ISDS) mechanisms.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Diane Desierto (Yale, JSD) is Professor for International Law, International
Economic Law, International Arbitration, Business Associations, ASEAN Law,
and International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law at the University of
Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law; Co-Director of the ASEAN Law &
Integration Center (ALIC); Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center USA;
Experts’ Group Team Leader for Oxford Investment Claims; Member of the
Scientific Advisory Board of the European Journal of International Law;
Associate Editor of the Asian Yearbook of International Law; and forthcoming
Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law. Among
various books and articles, she recently authored Public Policy in International
Economic Law: The ICESCR in Trade, Finance, and Investment (Oxford
University Press, February 2015).
To register, please click HERE or email to: asli@nus.edu.sg
Admission is Free & Lunch is Provided
Closing date of registration: 25 March 2015