Date: April 1, 2019, 6:15pm – 8:00pm
Location: Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York

By Motoko Aizawa and Brooke Guven
March 29, 2019

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is expected to adopt in July an updated Legislative Guide on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Absent a fundamental reorientation of the most recently available draft, the UN stands to miss a huge opportunity to help countries achieve Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here is why.

Prepared for the T20 Task Force on Trade, Investment and Globalization, as an input into the 26-27 May 2019 G20 Summit chaired by Japan, this brief notes that there is growing support behind an international framework to facilitate investment for sustainable development. It suggests that the G20 consider adopting Guiding Principles on Investment Facilitation for Sustainable… read more

The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration, initiated by the Business and Human Rights Arbitration Working Group, aims to create an international private judicial dispute resolution avenue available to parties involved in business and human rights issues, thereby helping to address the significant remedy gap faced by victims of business-related abuses. With the… read more

Date: February 19, 2019, 12:10pm – 1:10pm
Location: Columbia Law School, Room 105

Sustainable investing, otherwise know as Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, has become a significant part of the investment management industry since 2006. There is an increasing acceptance of the investment merits of investing with ESG considerations across large parts of the investment industry. The next era of ESG investing will witness an increase in… read more

By Lorenzo Cotula, Brooke Guven, Lise Johnson and Thierry Berger
December 7, 2018

An ongoing multilateral process could provide a unique opportunity to reform a contentious area of global economic governance – but only if it properly identifies the key problems.

UNCITRAL has a vital role to play in exploring problems with and potential reform of ISDS, and in considering how to ensure its work better promotes, and does not undermine, rule of law, other domestic and international commitments and policies, and the globally agreed Agenda 2030. As the process moves forward, it is essential for… read more

CCSI, jointly with The Observatory for Sustainable Infrastructure, submitted comments to the UNCITRAL Secretariat regarding updates to the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects. CCSI’s comments focused on the need for an updated guide, which will now refer to Public Private Partnerships, to holistically and systematically incorporate considerations of: (1) sustainable development and the SDGs, (2)… read more

By Axel Berger, Uri Dadush, Andreas Freytag, Simon J. Evenett, Christian von Haldenwang, Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Raul Ochoa, Agustin Redonda, and Karl P. Sauvant
November 26, 2018

The leaders of the G20 will meet on 30 November and 1 December in Buenos Aires for their annual summit. They need to acknowledge that the last two years have been characterized by strong headwinds for the world economy. This time, however, it is not a mixture of poor macroeconomic policies and bad business decisions – as in 2008 when they met in Washington for their first summit – that endangers the well-being of billions of citizens around the globe. This time the threat stems from deliberate political decisions, in particular on trade.