Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties

The aim of this thesis is to examine whether South Africa's recently promulgated Protection of Investment Act represents a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime. In undertaking this examination, the bilateral investment treaty regime which preceded the Protection of Investment...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Boyce, Gizelle Marie
Other Authors: Bradfield, Graham
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Commercial Law 2017
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613828139712512
access_status_str Open Access
author Boyce, Gizelle Marie
author2 Bradfield, Graham
author_browse Boyce, Gizelle Marie
Bradfield, Graham
author_facet Bradfield, Graham
Boyce, Gizelle Marie
author_sort Boyce, Gizelle Marie
collection Thesis
description The aim of this thesis is to examine whether South Africa's recently promulgated Protection of Investment Act represents a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime. In undertaking this examination, the bilateral investment treaty regime which preceded the Protection of Investment Act was first reviewed and some of the typical clauses found in these treaties were examined. Pursuant to this examination, the Foresti arbitration, through which a group of Italian and Luxembourgish investors challenged South Africa's affirmative action measures in the mining industry on the basis of the bilateral investment treaties that South Africa had entered into, was then introduced. The author examined the claim made in Foresti, South Africa's response and the final award. The next Chapter then turned to the effects of the Foresti arbitration, which set in motion South Africa's review of the BITs it had entered into, and then the eventual termination of these BITs and replacement with the Protection of Investment Act. In answering the central question of this thesis, a clause by clause analysis of the Protection of Investment Act was conducted in order to determine whether that Act is able to satisfy the deficiencies highlighted in the BIT review pursuant to Foresti. In conducting this analysis, the author highlighted some notable omissions in the Protection of Investment Act. Through this review and comparison, it was concluded that the Protection of Investment Act fails as a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime for a number of reasons, and in particular for crystallising the flawed BIT regime through a legislative savings provision. A better alternative for South Africa would have been renegotiating historical BITs based on a Model BIT incorporating the necessary amendments to rectify the perceived BIT limitations as highlighted in South Africa's BIT review.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/25200
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:42:20.861Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Commercial Law
publisherStr Department of Commercial Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/25200 An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties Boyce, Gizelle Marie Bradfield, Graham International Trade Law The aim of this thesis is to examine whether South Africa's recently promulgated Protection of Investment Act represents a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime. In undertaking this examination, the bilateral investment treaty regime which preceded the Protection of Investment Act was first reviewed and some of the typical clauses found in these treaties were examined. Pursuant to this examination, the Foresti arbitration, through which a group of Italian and Luxembourgish investors challenged South Africa's affirmative action measures in the mining industry on the basis of the bilateral investment treaties that South Africa had entered into, was then introduced. The author examined the claim made in Foresti, South Africa's response and the final award. The next Chapter then turned to the effects of the Foresti arbitration, which set in motion South Africa's review of the BITs it had entered into, and then the eventual termination of these BITs and replacement with the Protection of Investment Act. In answering the central question of this thesis, a clause by clause analysis of the Protection of Investment Act was conducted in order to determine whether that Act is able to satisfy the deficiencies highlighted in the BIT review pursuant to Foresti. In conducting this analysis, the author highlighted some notable omissions in the Protection of Investment Act. Through this review and comparison, it was concluded that the Protection of Investment Act fails as a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime for a number of reasons, and in particular for crystallising the flawed BIT regime through a legislative savings provision. A better alternative for South Africa would have been renegotiating historical BITs based on a Model BIT incorporating the necessary amendments to rectify the perceived BIT limitations as highlighted in South Africa's BIT review. 2017-09-14T12:26:00Z 2017-09-14T12:26:00Z 2017 Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25200 eng application/pdf Department of Commercial Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle International Trade Law
Boyce, Gizelle Marie
An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
thesis_degree_str Master's
title An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
title_full An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
title_fullStr An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
title_full_unstemmed An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
title_short An examination of whether the protection of Investment Act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
title_sort examination of whether the protection of investment act represents a successful alternative to bilateral investment treaties
topic International Trade Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25200
work_keys_str_mv AT boycegizellemarie anexaminationofwhethertheprotectionofinvestmentactrepresentsasuccessfulalternativetobilateralinvestmenttreaties
AT boycegizellemarie examinationofwhethertheprotectionofinvestmentactrepresentsasuccessfulalternativetobilateralinvestmenttreaties