Policy, Law, Contracts, and Sustainable Investments – Second Colloquium
Date: March 20, 2015 10:30am–4:30pm
Location: Herbert Smith Freehills | Exchange House, Primrose Street, London
CCSI and the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) co-convened a second colloquium on Policy, Law, Contracts, and Sustainable Investments.
Hosted by:
Herbert Smith Freehills | Exchange House, Primrose Street
London, EC2A 2EG | Tel +44 20 7374 8000
Background:
CCSI and IHRB co-convened the first Colloquium on Policy, Law, Contracts, and Sustainable Investments in November 2014. The colloquium provided an opportunity for participants to share information on their respective activities focused on embedding sustainability and human rights in extractive industry and large-scale agricultural deals.
In addition, colloquium participants discussed the current state of practice around contracts, law, and policy, with a particular focus on what is being negotiated and included in investor-state contracts, as well as work being done to improve domestic laws and regulations related to large-scale investments. The colloquium closed with a brainstorming session on possible ways forward, including additional actors to engage.
CCSI and IHRB convened a follow-up colloquium to expand the conversation and to engage in a deeper discussion of the current state of practice by legal professionals who represent governments or companies in extractive industry or large-scale agricultural deals. This colloquium also facilitated a discussion on the types of tools and support that would be helpful from a practitioner’s perspective to thoroughly consider and consistently embed sustainability and human rights in contracts, law, and policy measures.
Objectives of the Second Colloquium:
- To discuss the main highlights from the first colloquium, seek participant reflections, and provide an opportunity for new participants to share relevant activities.
- To have an in-depth discussion on provisions that are being requested (by companies, communities or governments), offered, or included, as well as those that are explicitly avoided, in extractive industry and large-‐scale agricultural contracts; how such provisions are applied and implemented in practice; the kinds of policies, laws, and regulations that are available or needed to obviate the use of certain contractual provisions; and the balance between investor‐State contracts, on the one hand, and policy, laws, and regulations, on the other. The discussion will be structured around the key stages in the life cycle of extractive industry or agricultural deals, including the pre-‐bidding and licensing, contract negotiation, dispute resolution, contract modification or re-‐negotiation, and contract termination stages.
- To continue to assess the current gaps in efforts to embed sustainability and human rights in extractive industry and agricultural deals, and to build off of initial discussions in the first colloquium regarding how to fill these gaps. This will include a discussion of the types of tools and support that would be helpful from a practitioner’s perspective to assist in more consistently embedding sustainability and human rights into contracts, law, and policy measures.