2022 CIBEL Global Network Young Scholars Workshop | Changes in International Economic Law: Digitalisation, sustainability and beyond | China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre

About this event

International investment law is facing many new issues, ranging from investment law and sustainable development (e.g., renewable energy, environment governance) to cultural heritage issues in investment arbitration. Such new landscape concerns factors including regulatory stability and development, public interest, and different paradigms of different regimes. These are considerable challenges faced by investors, governments, NGOs and other stakeholders. They will profoundly affect governance, regulation and the practice concerning investment and related areas.

This event will explore a number of crucial but under-explored issues, including the following ones:

How to conceptualise investment in international law through the legal framework?

How to address the fragmentation between international investment and environmental regimes and the dilemma where states face conflicting obligations?
How should regulatory stability be addressed in dispute settlement in the contexts such as renewable energy transition?
How to deal with interfacing and possible collision between international investment law and international cultural heritage law?

Moderator

Professor Heng Wang, Co-Director, China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, UNSW Law and Justice

Professor Heng Wang is a co-director of UNSW Law & Justice's China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, the largest centre in this field outside China. He is also a co-director of the Tsinghua-UNSW Joint Research Centre for International Commercial and Economic Law (JCICEL). He explores the future of international economic relationship, including digital currency and sustainable development. Heng is a recipient of major grants and awards. He has advised or spoken at events organized by international organizations and institutions (e.g., APEC, BIS, HCC, ICC, IMF, UNCITRAL, WTO), and the private sector.

Speakers

Dr Dominik Moskvan, Affiliated Researcher, University of Antwerp

Dominik Moskvan is an Affiliated Researcher in the Business & Law Research Group at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp and a Legal Expert at the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp (Dehousse Fellowship) and he also holds Juris Utrisque Doctor degree in European Union law from the Charles University, LL.M. in International Business Law from Tilburg University (Tilburg University Merit Scholarship Awardee), and Master’s degree in law from Masaryk University. During the course of his doctoral studies he was a visiting researcher at the University of Oslo and Peking University. Dominik gained further experience working in various legal roles at the European Commission’s Legal Service, the International Monetary Fund, the Energy Charter Secretariat, and the Czech National Bank. His research interests lie in the areas of International and European economic and financial law.

Dr Ying Zhu, Assistant Professor, Renmin University of China Law School

Ying Zhu is an assistant professor at Renmin University of China Law School, and serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Institute of International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement at Renmin University of China. She earned LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Yale Law School. Her academic interests include international investment law and environmental law. She has published articles on Harvard International Law Journal, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Natural Resources Journal and Nordic Journal of Commercial Law.

Find out more about Ying's research in her presentation below.

Dr Chen Yu, Postdoctoral Researcher, National University of Singapore

Dr Chen Yu received her PhD degree from McGill University and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at NUS Faculty of Law. Her research interests include international investment and trade law, international adjudication, international relations and energy law. Her research has been published in various peer-reviewed journals, including ICSID Review, the Journal of International Dispute Settlement, the Journal of World Investment and Trade and Asia Pacific Law Review. Her monograph, titled "Dispute Settlement and the Reform of International Investment Law: Legalization Through Adjudication" will be published with Edward Elgar.

Watch her presentation ahead of the roundtable discussion.

Commentator

Dr Jonathan Bonnitcha, Member of the China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, UNSW Law and Justice

Jonathan Bonnitcha is a Senior Lecturer in UNSW’s Faculty of Law and Justice. He is best-known for his research on investment treaties. His research also considers the inter-relationships between different systems of foreign investment governance, including investor-state contracts, national investment laws, national investment dispute management agencies and international principles, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

From 2022 to 2025, Jonathan is a Chief Investigator on the ARC-funded project China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A New Model of Economic Governance?, along with CIBEL colleagues Heng Wang, Kun Fan and Ross Buckley. Within this project, Jonathan is leading the research stream on investor-state contracting between Chinese firms engaged in outward foreign investment and government entities of the host states in which they invest.