Paul E. Comeaux & N. Stephan Kinsella, “Reducing Political Risk in Developing Countries: Bilateral Investment Treaties, Stabilization Clauses, and MIGA & OPIC Investment Insurance , 15 New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law 1 (1994)
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.
