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421. Breaking Free: Strategies for Governments on Terminating Investment Treaties and Removing ISDS Provisions

Author:
Ladan Mehranvar and Martin Dietrich Brauch
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
As we enter the second half of 2024, the need for a fundamental transformation of the global investment and policy landscape is indisputable. Only ambitious, truly systemic changes can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of ending extreme poverty, increasing social inclusion, reducing inequality, promoting the environmental sustainability of food systems, ecosystems, and biodiversity, and urgently shifting towards sustainable energy sources. The transition towards a more sustainable and equitable legal and economic global governance system involves moving away from industries and practices that harm the environment, such as fossil fuel extraction and use, and towards renewable energy sources. It also involves fostering sustainable practices that respect and uphold the rights, needs, and priorities of individuals, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples,1 as well as respecting governments’ sovereign right to regulate in the public interest. Progress, unfortunately, often clashes with a deeply entrenched status quo. One significant obstacle facing international investment law and policymakers is the investment treaty regime, which consists primarily of a network of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), multilateral investment treaties (MITs), and investment chapters in free trade agreements (FTAs). These international investment agreements (IIAs or investment treaties) dictate the treatment of foreign investment and foreign investors by host States. They contain a broad set of substantive provisions safeguarding investors and their investments, along with a powerful investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism that allows foreign investors to seek recourse through international arbitration in order to enforce treaty obligations. Many concerns about IIAs and the ISDS mechanism stem from the extensive substantive and procedural privileges granted to foreign investors. The ISDS mechanism, which is also found in national investment laws and increasingly in investor-State contracts, allows foreign investors to challenge legitimate regulatory measures taken by governments to achieve more equitable economic growth, address the climate crisis, respond to a global pandemic, or otherwise serve the public interest, if those measures negatively impact the investor’s bottom line.
Topic:
Climate Change, Treaties and Agreements, Reform, Multilateralism, and Investment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

422. Government Procurement, Financial Services, and Environment: Linkages and Implications for the EU and Brazil

Author:
Adeet Dobhal and Lucas Moreira Jimenez
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
The relationship between trade agreements and the environment is increasingly a priority for policymakers and civil society today. However, some of the disciplines covered by modern trade agreements have not received enough attention when it comes to their potential impact on the environment. Financial services and government procurement are two such areas, even though they are increasingly consequential topics for international trade policy and negotiations. This blind spot merits greater consideration as the connections definitely exist: the regulation of government procurement and financial services can have positive or negative implications for environmental outcomes on the ground, which makes understanding these links a crucial task. Engaging in this very task, this report focuses on the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement, with a particular attention to the case of Brazil. Using the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as an analytical base, the report examines recent and relevant trade agreements entered into by Brazil and the EU to contextualize and understand the links between environmental protection on the one hand and government procurement and financial services on the other. The insights generated are then applied to the analysis of the government procurement and financial services chapters of the EUMTA, in an effort to understand how these rules affect parties’ ability to regulate in pursuit of environmental outcomes.
Topic:
Environment, Treaties and Agreements, Trade, WTO, and Procurement
Political Geography:
Global Focus

423. Circular Economy in the Industrial Goods Sector: A Framework for Understanding Private Sector Progress and Innovation

Author:
Chris Albin-Lackey
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
A circular economy is an economic system “fundamentally based on closing the loops around systems of extraction, production, and consumption.”1 Individual participants in a circular economy reduce, reuse, and recycle. They strive to consume less. They minimize waste, especially by producing and using longer-lasting goods that do not need to be replaced often. And as much as possible, they recycle goods that can no longer be used back into the production loop, minimizing the need to extract new resources and materials from the natural world.2 Some definitions of a circular economy also emphasize the idea of minimizing harm to the natural environment and taking meaningful actions to restore it.3 Since the idea of a circular economy describes an entire economic system, it is not primarily framed around the specific, near-term behavior of individual companies within the existing economy. No complex business can attain perfect circularity within the context of our emphatically non-circular global economy. Systemic progress towards a circular economy would require strong and coherent government action in the form of regulation, support and incentives. State action would ultimately need to shape the behavior of actors across the entire breadth of the economy. The literature details more comprehensive and detailed visions of circularity and the synergies between circular economy, climate and environmental goals. Generally speaking, that literature describes the larger system and not the immediate steps companies should take to align with and support progress towards a more circular economy.4 However, individual companies can take meaningful steps forward, both alone and in collaboration with others. This paper contributes to a wider understanding of what such efforts look like in practice by studying the circular economy goals, efforts and claims of about 50 companies across the industrial goods sector. It breaks down essential elements of circular economy innovation and good practice into five distinct categories of company action–outlined below–and describes practical examples of each based on companies’ publicly-articulated claims.
Topic:
Economy, Business, Manufacturing, Innovation, and Industry
Political Geography:
Global Focus

424. Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential with Heba Gowayed (Episode 16)

Author:
Heba Gowayed
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
Abstract:
Drawing on a global and comparative ethnography, Professor Heba Gowayed (https://www.hebagowayed.com/) explores how Syrian men and women seeking refuge in a moment of unprecedented global displacement are received by countries of resettlement and asylum—the U.S., Canada, and Germany. It shows that human capital, typically examined as the skills immigrants bring with them that shape their potential, is actually created, transformed, or destroyed by receiving states’ incorporation policies. Since these policies derive from historically informed and unequal approaches to social welfare, refugees’ experiences raise a mirror to how states (re)produce inequality.
Topic:
Immigration, Refugees, Displacement, Syrian War, Resettlement, Asylum, and Social Welfare
Political Geography:
Syria and Global Focus

425. If-Then Commitments for AI Risk Reduction

Author:
Holden Karnofsky
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
If-then commitments are an emerging framework for preparing for risks from AI without unnecessarily slowing the development of new technology. The more attention and interest there is in these commitments, the faster a mature framework can progress.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Risk, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:
Global Focus

426. Corrupt behavior and the safety of organizational units of the Prison Service

Author:
Marta Jaroszewska
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
Corruption in a broad, general sense is perceived as an important social problem that occurs in all spheres of human activity. This phenomenon develops according to the dynamics of changes in a given society. What remains unchanged over the years is that the purpose of corruption is material goods and personal benefits. The subject of this article is the phenomenon of corruption occurring in penitentiary units in the context of their security. When considering the issue of corruption, particular attention should be paid to the judicial authorities and places where perpetrators of crimes, including persons convicted for bribery, are serving sentences, i.e. prisons or detention centers.
Topic:
Security, Corruption, Prisons/Penal Systems, Organized Crime, and Resocialization
Political Geography:
Poland and Global Focus

427. The issue of anti-corruption prevention from the perspective of local government

Author:
Beata Tomaszewska-Hołub
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
Anti-corruption prevention is an important element in combating corruption crime. This prevention is a complex system, consisting of formal and legal rules and regulations, organizational procedures, rules of professional ethics for local government officials, and activities aimed at raising awareness of responsibility and corruption risks. Interesting solutions are “Codes of Ethics” and “Anti-corruption Policies” introduced in local government offices. It should be emphasized that anti-corruption prevention must be constantly adapted to the changing situation of corruption threats.
Topic:
Corruption, Regulation, Ethics, and Local Government
Political Geography:
Global Focus

428. Corruption at the level of local and central government in view of the country’s resilience system

Author:
Maciej Pietrusiński
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
Corruption regardless of its form and the stage at which it occurs has a pathological character. It has a destructive impact on the functioning mechanisms of public at state level, at local level and private institutions, as well as causing dysfunctions in economic systems. In addition, corruption causes security threats on a national, regional and global scale. There is no country in the world that has managed to fully solve the problem of corruption. The mechanisms and guidelines being put in place for offices and organisations countering this issue only limit the scale and narrow the area of impact. Even institutions concerned with ensuring security inside the state and protecting its interests beyond its borders are not free from this practice. This article will describe the impact of bribery on the functioning of key areas affecting the entire state and international security system.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Corruption, Resilience, Military, Local Government, and Public Administration
Political Geography:
Poland and Global Focus

429. Navigating the gray zone: the theoretical dilemma of interest groups impacting public life through lobbying and the threat of corruption

Author:
Mariusz Popławski
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
From the very beginning of human civilization, the ones in power were impacted by the others, who tried to gain from a more favorable decision. In order to achieve that, one could have used the correct arguments based on rationality, which, for instance, could have had an economic background. That demands much effort, meaning we should know the person we are trying to convince, learn about the situation, and gather opinions, evidence, and all sorts of data that could be useful. Others could try something risky and illegal – all sorts of corruption, including bribes, embezzlement, nepotism, extortion, kickbacks, etc. The distinction between the two seems straightforward, but only on the surface. If we get deeper into the issue, things get way more complex, and we might find it difficult to draw a clear line since the gray zone keeps growing. The paper concentrates then on the joint history of corruption and lobbying to give us a broad picture of the issue. Secondly, various concepts of the definition are analyzed to understand where we are in terms of the search between the two phenomena. The article ends with conclusions and further research suggestions.
Topic:
Corruption, Government, Lobbying, and Interest Groups
Political Geography:
Global Focus

430. Social determinants of corruption at the local level

Author:
Waldemar Wojtasik and Łukasz Trembaczowski
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
Although the phenomenon of corruption is sometimes viewed through the prism of legal or economic issues, at its core it is a social phenomenon. Contemporary studies on corruption draw attention to its relationship with the issue of trust. The typological model of the relationship between trust and corruption provided the analytical framework for the described studies. Relating the types of corruption to objects of trust creates a perspective in which the perception of corruption by officials is an area of particular interest. The described research presents the perception of various dimensions of political corruption by local government officials. The juxtaposition of the assessed corruption phenomena indicates their interconnectedness in the perception of the respondents, thereby emphasizing the importance of accountability of political authorities.
Topic:
Corruption, Crime, Government, Governance, and Trust
Political Geography:
Global Focus