Courses

    This course examines the regulation of foreign direct investment (FDI). Much of the course will consider U.S. law and policy applicable to “inward” FDI, particularly the Foreign Investment and National Security Act and restrictions on foreign investment applicable to particular sectors such as aviation and telecommunications. For comparative purposes, we will also look at the investment regulatory regimes of selected foreign countries. Treaties, codes, guidelines, and other applicable international instruments – both bilateral and multilateral – will also be covered.

The course will be a blend of a traditional classroom approach and three intensive simulated exercises. We will begin the semester with an introduction to the economics and history of FDI and, more generally, multinational corporations. Next will follow three distinct segments of the course – national regulation of FDI, international protection of FDI, and current policy debates on the role of FDI in the United States. Each segment will culminate in a fairly complex simulation of relevant practice situations in three different settings – regulatory screening of a foreign investment for national security purposes, an international arbitration of a claim that an investment has been expropriated, and an interagency consideration of a controversial policy issue, such as the role of sovereign wealth funds in the U.S. economy. Each student in the course will participate in each simulation, but with varying levels of responsibility. Government and private practicing lawyers will participate in each of the simulations.