Investment Protection in Brazil

Although it has been ranked the fourth largest destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world, Brazil seems to take a different path on the subject if compared to other countries which are instead parties to bilateral, regional and/or multilateral investment Treaties. Hence, Brazilian companies investing abroad normally act without the protection of the FDI system. Considering the country’s widely acclaimed “arrival” into the small family of the world’s major trading nations, the question of Brazil’s entry in the international FDI system – not only as an incentive to the inflow of foreign investment, but also to protect the investments of its national companies abroad – has become a hotly debated issue. This timely book, with its incisive reports on all important aspects of the matter, tackles this subject with prodigious knowledge and insight.

With detailed analysis of investment-related legislation, including different legal and regulatory models, as well as the peculiarities of highly specialized industries present in Brazil, the authors cover such aspects as the following:

• • investment in infrastructure, social areas such as education and health, commodities, and the oil and gas sector;
• • to what extent expropriation under Brazilian law resembles the international standard of protection;
• • political implications of Brazil’s FDI stance with regard to the balance of interest within the Latin American region;
• • foreign investment in light of the principle of national treatment;
• • enforceability of arbitration agreements vis-à-vis the state, state entities, and state-owned companies;
• • conflicts of jurisdiction between state courts and arbitral tribunals;
• • arbitration involving companies in liquidation and reorganization proceedings;
• • public–partnership contracts; and
• • investment-related aspects of human rights and intellectual property rights.

Showing that Brazil, to a significant extent, enjoys a stable legal system which grants foreign direct investment the same material and procedural rights as national direct investment, the contributors to this book provide a truly informative and useful guide for those who work with law and policy in international investment.

“It is of very great interest for the international arbitration community. Not only by the quality of its contributors, but also because it poses the right questions at the right time.” – From the Foreword by Mr. Yves Derains

“A praiseworthy initiative by the CBAr Investment Arbitration Group and, particularly, by its coordinators.” – From the Foreword by Professor Arnoldo Wald

“The authors of the present publication have competently accomplished the task of writing about the subject, providing the reader with quality material, thus bringing an important and necessary contribution to those who study and act in the field.” – From the Foreword by Professor Luiz Olavo Baptista