International Investment for Sustainable Development: Balancing Rights and Rewards

Description

International Investment for Sustainable Development critically examines the interface between sustainability, development, and the governance of international investment. It challenges the conventional view that foreign direct investment is a 'miracle drug' for developing countries and exposes serious shortcomings in the current international investment regime. Composed of norms, agreements, treaties and regulations, the emerging investment regime expands the rights of transnational corporations (TNCs) without commensurate rewards for the common good. Drawing on both research and engaged advocacy, the contributors ultimately map out a new way forward, towards the creation and implementation of international investment rules that will promote global sustainability and equity.

Lyuba Zarsky is senior research fellow at the Global Development and Environment Institute at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Tufts University, US, and senior associate and co-founder of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, US. Her publications included Human Rights and the Environment: Conflicts and Norms in a Globalizing World (Earthscan, 2002), and Beyond Good Deeds: Case Studies and a New Policy Agenda for Corporate Accountability (Natural Heritage Institute, 2002).

"Over the years there has been extensive debate about the relationships between international investment and sustainable development. At one extreme is the argument that foreign investment, especially in the extractive and energy sectors, leads to accelerated environmental degradation and an erosion of sustainability. At the other extreme is the view that international investment, like trade, accelerates economic development, which in turn provides the wherewithal to divert the necessary economic resources from ordinary kinds of economic activity to environmental protection and related dimensions of sustainability. This volume belongs to the first of these schools of thought, arguing that the rules governing foreign investment are fundamentally biased in favor of multinational corporations. Most of the authors are advocates affiliated with five different NGOs or think tanks, and the book contains little solid research. On the other hand, the last two chapters contain thoughtful recommendations for amending international trade and investment rules to take into greater account issues related to sustainable development. Summing Up: Recommended. Comprehensive international and environmental economics collections, lower-division undergraduate and up."--I. Walter, New York University in CHOICE