This research focuses on the relationship between international investment and cultural rights, ultimately seeking to determine how to reconcile investor protection with the need to protect and promote the cultural rights of vulnerable stakeholders, such as indigenous peoples. Cultural rights, which are closely connected to the principles of human dignity and sustainable development, have attracted the attention of academics and policy-makers in recent decades, but are still far from receiving the attention and recognition that they deserve. Conversely, international investment law is much more developed and has been construed in a way that can compromise a host State's ability to regulate in order to promote and protect human rights in general, and cultural rights in particular. This research will contain two parts: the first one will be composed of three chapters, the first analysing the concept and scope of cultural rights; the second providing an overview of international investment law; and the third assessing its relationship with cultural rights. The second part of the study will deal with the hard and soft law mechanisms that can be used to influence the balance between investment and the respect for cultural rights, at the international level. This will include the analysis of voluntary corporate conduct codes (chapter 4), compliance requirements in the context of investment loans (chapter 5), as well as investor-State dispute settlement (chapter 6). Finally, conclusions will be drawn, so as to provide a deeper understanding of the most effective ways to protect and promote cultural rights in the context of foreign investment.
#DefendTheSacred: Harnessing Hard and Soft Law Mechanisms to Integrate International Investment and Cultural Rights
Mota, A. R. C. A. (Author). 2018
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy