The 50 Years of BITs Conference 2009
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Welcome to
the 50 Years of BITs Conference 2009


THEME AND OBJECTIVES

This year marks the Golden Jubilee of the first Bilateral Investment Treaty ("BIT"). Signed on 25 November 1959 by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, it formed part of the process of reconstruction in the aftermath of the Second World War. 1959 also saw the early attempts at multilateralism in the form of the draft Convention on Investments Abroad, a combination of the 1957 draft International Convention for the Mutual Protection of Private Property Rights, produced by the Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Auslandsinvestitionen (promoter of this conference) and the 1958 Abs Shawcross Proposed Convention to Protect Foreign Investment

This conference is the official celebration of this anniversary in Germany.

The purpose of this conference is not just to celebrate. With significant changes in the pattern of movement of foreign capital, a deep financial crisis, a major transfer of competence in Europe and the threat of protectionism, this Golden Jubilee also provides a timely opportunity to examine the policy issues which will shape international investment law in the years to come. The conference will bring together academics, advocates, arbitrators, economists, investors, policy makers and political scientists to identify and debate these issues.

The conference has been designed to complement both in time and content the "OECD Global Forum on International Investment VIII" wich will take place in Paris on 7-8 December 2009.
Details are available at www.oecd.org/investment/gfi-8

Panellists will include:



  • Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, former CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre
  • Dr. Christoph G. Benedict, ALSTOM Deutschland AG
  • Professor Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel, Chairman of the Board, German Institution of Arbitration (DIS); former President, International Law Association
  • Dr. Karl-Ernst Brauner, Director General, External Economic Policy Department, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany
  • Professor Bernardo Cremades, Cremades y Asociados
  • Professor Rudolf Dolzer, University of Bonn
  • Zachary Douglas, Jesus College, University of Cambridge; Matrix Chambers
  • Professor Piet Eeckhout, King's College London
  • L. Yves Fortier CC QC, Ogilvy Renault LLP
  • Omar García Bolívar, BG Consulting
  • Dr. Richard Happ, Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH
  • Dr. Christoph Hauschka, PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal AG
  • Professor Stephan Hobe, University of Cologne
  • Robert Hunter, Lovells LLP
  • Professor Emmanuel Jolivet, General Counsel, International Court of Arbitration, International Chamber of Commerce; Professor at the University of Versailles
  • Meg Kinnear, Secretary-General of ICSID
  • Ulrich W. Klemm, DEG - Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
  • The Hon. Marc Lalonde, PC OC QC
  • Maurice Mendelson,, QC, Blackstone Chambers
  • Dr. Patricia Nacimiento, White & Case LLP
  • Daniel M. Price, Sidley Austin LLP, former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, USA
  • Lucy Reed, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
  • Professor August Reinisch, University of Vienna and Bologna Center/SAIS of Johns Hopkins University
  • Professor Giorgio Sacerdoti, Bocconi University, Milan; WTO Appellate Body
  • Dr. Manfred Schekulin, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, Austria; Chair of the OECD Investment Committee
  • Professor Christoph Schreuer
  • Professor M. Sornarajah, National University of Singapore
  • Joachim Steffens, Head of Division International Investments and Finance, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany
  • Professor Brigitte Stern, University of Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne; Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva
  • Professor Sompong Sucharitkul, Rangsit University
  • Professor Christian Tietje, University of Halle
  • Professor Ulrich Wölker, Legal Service of the European Commission
  • James Zhan, Director, Division for Investment and Enterprise, UNCTAD
  • Professor Yuejiao Zhang, Shantou University, WTO Appellate Body; former Director-General of Law and Treaties at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

  • Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan

  • Roland Koch, Prime Minister of the State of Hesse

  • Hans-Joachim Otto, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany

  • Dr. Ludolf v. Wartenberg, President of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Auslandsinvestitionen e.V.

  • Dr. Cornel Wisskirchen, Member of the Management Committee of Deutsche Bank AG



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