2016 Chapters (Layout Features)

Lessons from the Negotiations of the United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations and Related Instruments

Sauvant, Karl P.

While not involved in the United Nations Code negotiations themselves, Professor Sornarajah did write about the Restrictive Business Practices Set. Moreover, although the United Nations Code negotiations came to naught, they crystallized the basic configuration of interests of the principal stakeholders and the key issues associated with them. They also laid bare a number of the obstacles that governments seeking a multilateral investment instrument need to overcome. Many of these are still with us today and await an international solution. This chapter distills the lessons learned from these negotiations. The experience of these negotiations and the lessons learned from them are of immediate relevance to the current international investment negotiations.