Lise Johnson

Head: Investment Law and Policy

Lise Johnson leads the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment's work on investment law and policy. Her work at CCSI centers on analyzing the contractual, legislative, and international legal frameworks governing international investment, and shaping the impacts that those investments have on sustainable development objectives. She focuses in particular on analyzing international investment treaties and the investor-state arbitrations that arise under them, examining the implications those treaties and cases have for host countries' domestic policies and development strategies. In addition, she concentrates on key institutional and procedural aspects of the legal framework, including efforts to increase transparency in and legitimacy of investor-state dispute settlement. She has a B.A. from Yale University, J.D. from University of Arizona, LL.M. from Columbia Law School, and is admitted to the bar in California.

Selected Publications

• Environmental Injustice: How Treaties Undermine the Right to a Healthy Environment, 2019-11-13
• Investment Treaties, Investor-State Dispute Settlement, and Inequality: How International Investment Treaties Exacerbate Domestic Disparities, 2019-01
• Tax Expenditure and the Treatment of Tax Incentives for Investment, 2018-07-19
• At the Intersection of Land Grievances and Legal Liability: The Need to Reconsider Contract Rights and Expectations at the Supranational Level, 2017
• International Investment Agreements: Impacts on Climate Change Policies in India, China and Beyond, 2016-11
• The Real Danger in TPP, 2016-02-19
• The Outsized Costs of Investor–State Dispute Settlement, 2016-02
• TPP Would Let Foreign Investors Bypass the Canadian Public Interest, 2015-11-25
• Next Generation Treaty - India’s New Model BIT Makes it Clear that its Goal is to Accomplish More than Investor Protection, 2015-11-12
• Wrong Direction on Climate, Trade and Development, 2015-06-22
• Why Fast Track Is a Dangerous Gift to Corporate Lobbies, 2015-05-19
• Not So Fast, 2015-05-12
• Eyes Wide Shut On ISDS, 2015-04-22
• International Investment Agreements: Are Their Policy Aims Served By Their Broad Definitions of Covered “Investors” and “Investments”?, 2014-11
• The Impact of Investment Treaties on Governance of Private Investment in Infrastructure, 2014-03-01
• State Liability for Regulatory Change: How International Investment Rules are Overriding Domestic Law, 2014-01-06
• Mining Contracts: How to Read and Understand Them, 2013-12
• Background Paper on Investment Incentives for Eighth Columbia International Investment Conference, 2013-11-08
• New UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules on Transparency: Application, Content and Next Steps, 2013-09-18
• Mobil v. Canada – Ratcheting Down the Scope of Treaty Reservations, 2013-09-10
• New UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules on Transparency: Application, Content and Next Steps, 2013-08-30
• Investor-State Contracts, Host-State “Commitments” and the Myth of Stability in International Law, 2013
• The 2012 US Model BIT and What the Changes (or Lack Thereof) Suggest About Future Investment Treaties, 2012-11
• Intra-African Investment – A Pressing Issue, 2012-11
• Inching Towards Consensus: An Update on the UNCITRAL Transparency Negotiations, 2012-10-30
• Addressing Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Through Insurance for Overseas Investments: The example of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, 2012-05
• FDI Perspective No. 79 (September 24, 2012), "Absent from the discussion: The other half of investment promotion", 2012-02-24
• Chinese Outward Investment: An Emerging Policy Framework, 2012