ESSAY TITLES FOR : LA906 International Investment Law

Assessment             : Coursework (summative assessment)

Submission Date     : 24 April 2025 at 12pm (noon) GMT

Essay weighting       : This essay counts for 100% of your overall mark for the module

Word limit                : 4000 words

Please read the following instructions carefully.

1. Word Limit

Essays must not be longer than the word limit stated above. The number of words used must be stated on the front of your essay. Anything written beyond this word limit will not be marked and you will not get any credit for it. There is no margin above the word limit.

The word limit includes all of the main text of the essay, including quotations and text within footnotes. References and citations in footnotes do not count against the word limit. The bibliography does not count against the word limit.

2.        Submission and Late Submission Penalties

The essay must be submitted via Tabula by the date stated above. We recommend you submit it at least 30 minutes before the deadline as it can take a few minutes to upload. If your work is received after the deadline, even by a few seconds, a late penalty will be applied to your mark. Late penalties accumulate at a rate of 5 points per day for every 24-hour period by which the deadline is exceeded, rounding up to the next 24-hour period.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you can clearly identify the final version of your work (e.g., by using an appropriate filename that includes "_final" at the end) and to upload the  correct version before the deadline.

Ensure that everything is in one single .pdf file. It is not possible to substitute a revised version after the deadline.

You should upload your files in sufficient time before the submission deadline to check that  you have uploaded the final version of the correct essay for that module and that the file can be opened and read and is not corrupted in some way. If necessary, the uploaded file should be replaced before the submission deadline.

Your student ID number should be clearly indicated on the first page of your work. Do not put your name on your essay, as all work is marked anonymously.

It is also your responsibility to submit the assessment for the correct module. Including the module code/name in the filename would be advisable (e.g., "u123456_LA456-RocketLaw_final").

Please refer tohttps://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/student-hub/pg/assessmentsfor further information on submission via tabula.

3.        Marking Scheme for Law Assessments

Your work is marked by a member of the academic staff and marks are moderated by another staff member. Marks are provisional and subject to moderation. Although marks are not negotiable, you may arrange a meeting to discuss your mark with your tutor after receiving any feedback. Particular care is taken with all work which receives a mark of less than 50% or is on a borderline between classes. Such work, along with other samples, may be referred to  the external examiner.

In marking we pay particular attention to how clearly you develop your ideas, how correctly you identify and understand the issues for analysis, how critically you engage with the literature and materials relevant to your topic, how clearly you develop your ideas and arguments, how correctly you set out the law where applicable, how critically you engage with other views, and how effectively you engage with the essay title.

You will not get credit for lack of clarity, failure to provide evidence for your assertions, material that is not relevant, and for being overly descriptive, rather than analytical, in your approach.

For a full explanation of the marking criteria please refer to the Postgraduate Taught Handbook (Red Book)

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/student-hub/pg/extra/llm_handbook_2024-2025.pdf

and the LLM Feedback Information

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/student-hub/pg/extra/llm_feedback_information_2024- 2025_.pdf

4.        Good Academic Practice

Please make sure that you familiarise yourself with what constitutes poor academic practice and academic misconduct. Be aware that the submission of text written by generative AI tools   (such as ChatGPT) is not allowed and will be treated as academic misconduct. Other uses of AI are governed by the University’s and School’s rules on AI and any specific instructions given for this assessment.

See the Law School’s Academic Integrity Guidelines on our online student hub pages (see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/current/gapand in the Postgraduate Taught

Handbook (Red Book)

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/student-hub/pg/extra/llm_handbook_2024-2025.pdf

You should familiarize yourself with the Law School’s Policy on the use of Artificial

Intelligence (AI) and take careful note of the Guidance to Students on the permitted and prohibited uses of GenAI.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/student-hub/pg/extra-pgr/wls_ai_policy_2024_adopted- final.pdf

You should also familiarize yourself with chapter 4 of the University’s Institutional Approach to the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity

(institutional_approach_to_the_use_of_artificial_intelligence_and_academic_integrity.pdf (warwick.ac.uk)).

If there is a finding of poor academic practice, then any material that is not properly referenced will be ignored by the marker and you will gain no credit for it. This is likely to result in a low mark. A finding of academic misconduct will result in a mark of 0.

ESSAY TITLES/QUESTIONS:

Choose one essay from the following essay titles:

1.  ‘The ‘‘grand bargain’’ of international investment law – offering protection in return for increased investment flows – has proved to be an illusion. Maintaining international investment agreements in their current form. only brings risks to developing nations. The demise of these agreements cannot come a day too soon.’ Critically discuss.

2.  ‘Arbitral awards finding host states in breach of fair and equitable treatment are far less persuasive than those finding them not liable. This indicates an unacceptable level of bias among investment arbitrators.’ Critically discuss.

3.  ‘Regulatory autonomy of host states is overemphasised in criticisms of international investment law. All states occasionally enact misguided laws and regulations and act unacceptably in other ways. International investment law is rightly there to provide at least some protection when this happens.’ Critically discuss.

4.  ‘ICSID arbitration is the most powerful dispute resolution mechanism in international law. Using such a mechanism for protection of a single class of actors - foreign investors - is not warranted. Returning to the procedures offered by commercial arbitration instruments would be more than sufficient.’ Critically discuss.

SKILLS:

For this essay we will assess the following skills in particular and the feedback on your essay will reflect this:

Comprehension of the topic; analysis of the issues; critique; incorporation of relevant scholarship based on topics covered in the module and the reading set for classes; structure, signposting and presentation of your essay.