Global Governance

In this short commentary I briefly raise three critical points against the assumptions at the basis of this report. I discuss the temporality of employment in GVCs; the gendered construction of skills and employment disadvantage; and the need to move the debate from individual wages to social wages in order to truly assess the ‘reproductive’ - or more simply, livelihood - implications of GVCs employment on labouring classes.

Given the monumental task and constraints faced, SNGs have demonstrated resourcefulness, sometimes testing the boundaries of what is constitutionally acceptable nationally to get results.

The legal literature on the BRICS countries in English language is scarce and mostly focuses on the national legal systems with limited comparative element. On that point the teaching needs of the course coincided with our research interests and in 2017 we completed an edited volume The BRICS-Lawyers’ Guide to Global Cooperation published by Cambridge University Press.

If Africa is genuinely interested in the reforms of ISDS then the words of the Kenyan delegation at the UNCITRAL working group must be our yards stick; the desired outcome will only be achieved when we begin to consider the substantive issues in an open, frank, free, and transparent manner, noting the need to fast track the conclusion of a holistic reform process of the ISDS. Perceptions and plausible folk theories aimed at nothing but creating hegemony in ISDS must be shunned. My crystal ball tells me that ISDS is here to stay, thus we must make no mistakes, but shape ISDS to suit our future interests.

In this brief post, I want to make sense of Prabhash Ranjan’s brief critique of TWAIL perspectives on international investment law. My main aim is not to mount a defense of TWAIL project(s) on investment law because that might be done more eloquently by others. Instead, I want to make some brief comments about the political valence of, and the assumptions behind, the reservations that Professor Ranjan articulated in this post, and which also appear in his recent book on India and Bilateral Investment Treaties.

Dr. Amaka Vanni is a legal scholar, consultant and documentary filmmaker. Her work lies at the intersection of international economic law, development, and global governance.