Investment Law Reform : A Handbook for Development Practitioners
The chief purpose of this handbook is to provide government lawyers with a framework to evaluate the quality of a country's investment legislation (if it exists) and how the legislation relates to its investment policy and investment incentive...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/20278274/investment-law-reform-handbook-development-practitioners http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25206 |
| Summary: | The chief purpose of this handbook is to
provide government lawyers with a framework to evaluate the
quality of a country's investment legislation (if it
exists) and how the legislation relates to its investment
policy and investment incentives. More specifically, it
deals with creating new and reforming existing investment
legislation in developing and transition economies in
furtherance of the World Bank Group's (WBG's)
mandate to promote private investment - domestic and foreign
- in those economies. Handbook appendices contain drafting
guidelines and checklist of issues that foreign direct
investment (FDI) laws should include and that countries can
use when drafting investment legislation. The report is
structured as follows: chapter one defines key terms about
investment law reform in an effort to clarify terminology
and concepts and show how they are related. Chapter two
examines how widespread investment codes are and explains
their utility and limitations. Chapter three provides
recommendations on the structure of investment legislation
and the key provisions to be included such as definitions,
investors' guarantees, incentives, framework for
investment promotion, and transitional provisions. Chapter
four discusses the fundamental issue of investor entry, in
particular the conditions under which foreign investors can
invest including sectoral restrictions, limitations on
foreign ownership, authorization and screening, minimum
investment, and performance requirements. Chapter five
discusses key investor guarantees including fair and
equitable treatment, national treatment, most-favored-nation
(MFN) treatment, protection against expropriation,
guaranteed convertibility and repatriation of profits, and
settlement of disputes. Chapter six looks at the issue of
investment incentives, (fiscal incentives in particular) and
their effectiveness. Chapter seven summarizes key aspects of
investment promotion to guide legal drafters, should
policymakers want the investment code to set out the basic
framework of investment promotion. Chapter eight presents
the various phases of investment law reform projects, from
the government's request for assistance with
legislation to the delivery of a project plan. Chapter nine
identifies some of the challenges in preparing an investment
code and the support that governments may need until the law
is promulgated. Chapter ten discusses the monitoring and
evaluation (M and E) of investment law reforms, including
the key indicators involved in a desk review and medium- and
large-scale projects. |
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