Kinsella Law

From StephanKinsella.com:

Using International Law to Protect Property Rights and International Investment

Reprinted as “Using International Law to Protect Property Rights and International Investment,” Libertarian Alliance (UK) (6 Dec. 2025)

Among libertarians I am known most for my intellectual property (IP) and general libertarian theorizing, as in my books Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Papinian Press, 2023), Against Intellectual Property (Mises Institute, 2008) and other publications. In my libertarian writing and theorizing I have tried to blend my practical and theoretical legal knowledge (of IP law, oil & gas law, international law, Roman/Louisiana/civil law, and common law) with libertarian and Austrian economics scholarship and insights. [continue reading…]

Below are the Series Editors’ Preface, Preface, and Introduction for Noah D. Rubins, Thomas N. Papanastasiou and N. Stephan Kinsella, International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, 2d ed. (Oxford University Press, 2020).

• Series Editors’ Preface, Preface, Introduction, and Table of Contents (pdf; text below)
• Preface and Introduction for 1st ed. (2005)
• Preface and Introduction to Comeaux & Kinsella, Protecting Foreign Investment Under International Law: Legal Aspects of Political Risk (1997)
• Kinsella, “Using International Law to Protect Property Rights and International Investment,” StephanKinsella.com (Nov. 24, 2025)

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From StephanKinsella.com:

I have mentioned before my year obtaining an LL.M. in international business law at the University of London, 1991–1992, after law school. I had to take at least half my courses from King’s College London, my “base” school, and took the other half from the London School of Economics. My favorite course in the program was “The International Law of Natural Resources,” taught by Professor Rosalyn Higgins at LSE—now Dame Higgins and later the first woman on the International Court of Justice.

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Theodore H. Moran, Gerald T. West, and Keith Martin, eds., International Political Risk Management: Needs of the Present, Challenges for the Future (World Bank, 2008) (pdf; 2)

The main subjects discussed in this publication, International Political Risk Management: Needs of the Present, Challenges of the Future, -providing coverage based on bilateral investment treaties (BITs), unifying terrorism and traditional political violence insurance, incorporating recent experiences in the power sector in risk management plans, and improving protection against regulatory takings-are at the core of investors’ concerns in the current marketplace. The book is organized into 4 parts. Part I discusses new perspectives on political risk insurance products. Part II examines private power projects in emerging markets. Part III focuses on the challenge of managing regulatory risk and Part IV deals with the international political risk insurance industry in 2010.

Cites the earlier, first edition (2005) of my own work in this field, International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Earlier version: Theodore Moran and Gerald T. West, eds., International Political Risk Management: Looking to the Future (World Bank, 2005) (pdf).

See also Tosun, The Law of Political Risk Insurance.

Özge Tosun, The Law of Political Risk Insurance (Springer 2025).

 This book explores the scope of host states’ sovereign powers and the rights of foreign investors. Investors from developed countries engage in business with developing countries for various purposes, including political reasons, expanding and diversifying their operations, accessing essential natural resources and skilled labor forces, lowering their production costs, and in some cases, even mitigating global warming. Correspondingly, in order to attract foreign investment, host countries can provide incentives or make concessions. However, once the investment has been made, these ventures are vulnerable to the actions of the host state.

Political risk insurance, as the name suggests, serves to protect investments made in foreign countries where the sovereigns are more likely to interfere in the business activities of foreign investors.

This book offers a comprehensive understanding of the general mechanics of each main type of political risk, the entities responsible for these risks, insurers, their unions, and the subrogation process. Bridging the fields of investment law, insurance law, and international law, it offers valuable insights from both practical and academic perspectives.

Looks great, and cites my own work in this field, “Reducing Political Risk in Developing Countries: Bilateral Investment Treaties, Stabilization Clauses, and MIGA & OPIC Investment Insurance,” New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law 15 (1994): 1–48, which was later developed into a lengthier treatment, International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2020).

See also Moran et al., International Political Risk Management: Needs of the Present, Challenges for the Future.

Paul E. Comeaux & N. Stephan Kinsella, “Reducing Political Risk in Developing Countries: Bilateral Investment Treaties, Stabilization Clauses, and MIGA & OPIC Investment Insurance,” New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law 15, no. 1 (1994): 1–48

• Local PDF
• original version

This article, co-authored with my law school friend and colleague Paul Comeaux, summarizes ways international investors could reduce or respond to political risk in host states. This article was a synthesis of some previous articles my friend Comeaux and I had written, namely:

• “Insuring Investments in Russia and Other C.I.S. Republics: MIGA and OPIC,” Russian Oil & Gas Guide p. 3 (Vol. 2, No. 4, October 1993)
• United States Bilateral Investment Treaties with Russia and Other C.I.S. Republics, Russian Oil & Gas Guide p. 23 (Vol. 2, No. 3, July 1993)
• “Political Risk and Petroleum Investment in Russia,” Currents, International Trade Law Journal, Summer 1993, p. 48
• “Reducing the Political Risk of Investing in Russia and Other C.I.S. Republics: International Arbitration and Stabilization Clauses” (copy 2), Russian Oil & Gas Guide p. 21 (Vol. 2, No. 2, April 1993)

These articles, in turn, were inspired, in part, by a course, “The International Law of Natural Resources” that Paul and I took at the London School of Economics when pursuing our LL.M. degrees at the University of London in 1991–92. The course was taught by one of the world’s leading international law experts, the extremely impressive Rosalyn Higgins, later president of the International Court of Justice, and author of many influential works, such as Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It.

This article led to our book Protecting Foreign Investment Under International Law: Legal Aspects of Political Risk (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, 1997), which, in turn, led to a later book, International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, by me and Noah D. Rubins (Oxford, 2005) and a second edition with me, Rubins, and Thomas N. Papanastasiou (Oxford 2020).

I go into more detail about some of this in New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing.

Paul E. Comeaux and N. Stephan Kinsella, “Political Risk,” Chapter I.1 in Transnational Contracts, Vol. 1, edited and compiled by Charles Stewart (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, Inc., 1997) (pdf; text below).

See also Rubins, Papanastasiou & Kinsella’s International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, Second Edition.

Chapter 1  Political Risk

• In this chapter, we discuss the general nature of political risk: the various types or manifestations of political risk, factors that contribute to political risk, and ways that investors can assess the political risks inherent in particular investment regimes or with respect to certain investments.

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Below is the text of Lithuania’s Proposed Foreign Investment Laws: A Free-Market Critique, Russian Oil & Gas Guide p. 60 (Vol. 3, No. 2, April 1994). [See also Comments on Draft Law on Stimulation of Foreign Investments in Romania.]

This resulted from the following project: Comments on Draft Project of “Law on Foreign Capital Investment in the Republic of Lithuania, Memorandum to Mr. M. Černiauskas, President, Association of Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (November 18 1993). I have appended this text below as well.

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Lithuania’s Proposed Foreign Investment Laws: A Free-Market Critique, Russian Oil & Gas Guide p. 60 (Vol. 3, No. 2, April 1994).

Lithuania’s Proposed Foreign Investment Laws:  A Free Market Critique

N. Stephan Kinsella Jackson & Walker, L.L.P. Houston

[For current author info as of 12-2001: see: www.stephankinsella.com]

February 1994

Draft Submitted to The Russian Oil & Gas Guide

May differ slightly from version published in: The Russian Oil & Gas Guide, vol. 3, no. 2 (April 1994), p. 60

[Some formatting does not match published version]

1. Introduction

Are foreign investors welcome in Lithuania?  The answer to this question depends upon whether Lithuania is willing to protect investors’ property rights so that they have an incentive to invest their capital in a risky regime.  A government’s willingness to protect investors’ rights is evidenced, in part, by the contents of its foreign investment laws. [continue reading…]

[Update: The book was published April 2, 2020; more information here.]

As noted in previous posts, ¹ in 2005 I published International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, co-authored with Noah D. Rubins, an American international arbitration attorney in Paris.  The text has been widely adopted, well-received, and critically praised. For example:

“The book is a tour de force. Rubins & Kinsella have written a first-rate study of one of the most vital areas of international law today. Notwithstanding its subtitle (“A Practitioner’s Guide”), scholars as well as practicing attorneys will find this an invaluable guide to understanding the multifaceted adjudicatory regime for cross-border investment disputes.”
—William W. Park, R. Gordon Butler Scholar in International Law and Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law; General Editor, Arbitration International; Counsel to Ropes & Gray; former Vice-President, London Court of International Arbitration; publications include the casebook International Commercial Arbitration; International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration (3rd ed.); International Forum Selection; Income Tax Treaty Arbitration; and Arbitration of International Business Disputes: Studies in Law and Practice.

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1.  Preface and Introduction to International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide and New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing. [↩]