The impact of the direct foreign investment in Colombia

La inversión extranjera directa en Colombia es un asunto que particularmente desde 1990 ha venido tomando fuerza y que a su vez genera múltiples cuestiones. Para abordar el impacto que la IED ha tenido en Colombia se hace necesario hacer un acercamiento teórico para comprender el concepto, pasando por el estudio del caso latinoamericano para después seleccionar los principales sectores de la economía colombiana y en los cuales la IED ha jugado un rol destacado, como es el caso del sector financiero, la industria manufacturera, el sector de electricidad, gas y agua, el sector de transporte, almacenamiento y comunicaciones y el sector petróleo. Con ello en mente será posible establecer y medir el impacto económico de la IED, tomando como principal indicador la correlación entre la IED y PIB por sector y otros aspectos como el impacto en el empleo y la transferencia de conocimiento y tecnología. Igualmente es necesario abordar la perspectiva del inversionista y los riesgos y beneficios que corre al invertir en Colombia, esto permitirá ampliar el campo de análisis y establecer otras relaciones e impactos conexos de la IED en los aspectos sociales y culturales del país. Gracias a estos análisis será posible emitir un juicio de valor sustentado en un análisis científico detallado sobre el verdadero impacto de la IED y extendiéndose más allá del campo económico.

Los acuerdos de protección y promoción recíproca de inversiones (APPRI) o biteral investment treaties (BIT) en Colombia

La inversión extranjera constituye una oportunidad de elevar los índices de crecimiento y desarrollo económico de Colombia. Desde la reforma económica de 1990-1994, el país cambió su política frente a temas como: la economía, las finanzas públicas, la estructura empresarial, el sector agrícola y la base tributaria, entre otros. En respuesta a este cambio, con la entrada de las políticas de corte neoliberal y el nuevo sistema político e institucional del país, se modificaron sus estructuras e instituciones. Asimismo surgieron nuevas prioridades. De ahí que se iniciaran también nuevas relaciones estratégicas‚ con otros Estados, para satisfacer estos nuevos intereses. Dentro de estas nuevas prioridades surgió el interés de atraer inversión extranjera directa y de portafolio. En ese momento‚ e inclusive ahora se hace necesario financiar la economía emergente y nada más propicio que la inversión extranjera para este propósito. Es decir, se complementa el crecimiento económico, con flujos de capital externo, que puede llegar en forma de inversión directa o de figuras financieras como las acciones, los bonos, etc.

Alternatives to Reparations in International Investment Arbitration– A Debate Between Theory and Practice

An analysis of the alternatives of compensation in relation to international investment disputes is relevant, because a pecuniary award is not always the appropriate remedy to solve disputes arising between investors and States. This is the case because States may be increasingly interested in opting for a different type of compensation. Furthermore, it is still not clear whether arbitral tribunals have recognised alternative types of awarding damages in respect of international investments disputes. This analysis comprises two principal components, the first, is to identify whether or not the tribunals may render an award that not only demands the payment of a sum of money but also considers some other means of compensation. The second, centres on how compliance with these non-pecuniary awards may be demanded. Our approach to these two principal components will always revolve around the idea of respecting the sovereignty of the State, bearing in mind that the execution of an arbitral award, which obliges the State to refrain from or to perform an act in its territory, relies precisely on the sovereignty of the State to execute it. 

Corporate human rights obligations and international investment law

La globalización permeó las fronteras artificiales existentes entre la economía y la sociedad alrededor del mundo. Las actividades empresariales en este ambiente globalizado ha servido como catalizador de las violaciones de derechos humanos como consecuencia de la ausencia de la protección institucional algunas empresas han explotado los vacíos jurídicos y la falta de protección de los derechos humanos. Al respecto, para lograr un cambio paradigmático requiere un fuerte énfasis en los derechos y las obligaciones de las empresas. Este artículo presenta un análisis crítico de las obligaciones de las empresas en material de derechos humanos frente a la falta de cláusulas de estabilización en los contratos de inversión extranjera. En primer lugar, estas cláusulas son examinadas en relación con la responsabilidad en las obligaciones corporativas con relación a los derechos humanos fundamentales. De acuerdo con lo anterior, se analizan las dimensiones sustantivas y procesales de las cláusulas de estabilización. En segundo lugar, apelando a los ejemplos concretos del Acuerdo para el desarrollo de la Minería entre Mittal Steel y el Gobierno de Liberia, así como el proyecto del Oleoducto de Baku‐Tblisi‐Ceyhan como casos de análisis, este artículo busca la aplicación de las cláusulas de estabilidad en las inversiones extranjeras con relación a la protección de los derechos humanos por parte de los Estados y de las empresas. En tercer lugar, se propone una modificación a la forma como se introduce la cláusula relativa a los derechos humanos. En este orden de ideas, los derechos humanos de los inversionistas, específicamente de las empresas, deben ser incluidos en los acuerdos de inversión extranjera.

The NAFTA investment dispute settlement mechanism and the admissibility of amicus curiae briefs by NGOs

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Examples of chapter 11 NAFTA disputes, a trade-investment-environment experience

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A juridical-practical framework for the investigation of crimes against granting of public housing services

The public service enterprises are victims of crimes and felonies which may reduce their capacity to perform their functions. These enterprises expend much money and effort in order to prevent those criminal behaviors. For this reason they ask from the authorities more efficient measures against crime; however, such enterprises may feel that they are not being given sufficient importance and/or remedies in dealing with such crime. The aim paper of this is not to study the problem from de substantive criminal law point of view. Rather, this paper’s goal is to study the Colombia’s Rules of Criminal Procedure, which regulate the investigation of this kind of crime. The article will look particularly at the competency of the relevant authorities at the investigative stages. Finally, it will make some recommendations regarding a proper route towards the investigation of these criminal behaviors.

The incidents of housing policies in the process of nesting the urban space (Buenos Aires, 1870-1999)

This article describes the housing policies displayed historically in B.A. that affected the processes of configuration and of giving hierarchy to the urban space. Since the process of modernization of B.A., at the end of the XIXth century, housing measures, urbanistic projects and political decisions have influenced the building of the city and the space distribution of their inhabitants: in this way, they have integrated some people and excluded others. No wonder, that, historically, popular sectors have established themselves in the South of the city (and in outskirt villages). These zones have been disregarded by the state, which has invested less in these areas. We will see how the connection between state housing policies and the population redistribution in the city, confirms the persistence of a strong process of urban and residential segregation that tends to expel the inhabitants of popular sectors and to attract the ones of the middle-class and high class sectors.

Actions of resiliencia opposite to the housing policies in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina: the social organizations, the institutions, and the massive evictions

The current housing problems in the city of Buenos Aires revolves around two phenomena, the precariousness and the evictions, in a context that is conceived like housing emergency. In response to this situation, some institutional organisms and certain social organizations with territorial roots in the south of the city, began to take forward actions of resilience opposing to the massive evictions, which take place as consequence of the real-estate pressure, and were concerning to the hotels, pensions, tenancies, and usurped houses of this zone of the city. It will be analyzed the actions of resilience displayed by them in their individual and collective dimensions and their relation to housing policies.

Advances and limitations in the attention to the problems of housing and urban land in Mexico. An approach from the legal-institutional frame

In this work we analyze the reforms carried out by the Mexican state in the nineties of the 20th century, in the items concerning the policies of housing and urban land, based on an exhaustive review of the main actions, programs and changes in the legal and institutional frame that applies for each of these fields. The nineties represent a "breaking point" in the way the State considers the satisfaction of the right to the housing and attends the offer of urbanized land for a tidy and sustainable urban development. In this period of time, the approach of direct intervention in developing and financing housing and creation of land reserves has changed into another one, ruled by the logic of the market. The balance to the first decade of the 21st century is ambiguous, as neither the housing policy has solved the housing shortage for low-income population, nor the land policy has eliminated the illegal urban growth.

Informal access to urban land. Housing policies devoted to vulnerable sectors implemented in Cordoba-Argentina

The urban growth in Latino American cities, in a neoliberal context, has led to several population groups to having no possibilities to the access to urban land. Informal and irregular urban settlements increase, requiring attention from local governments, with actions and strategies in order to achieve both the regularization of such situation and further prevention. In the city of Córdoba different informal and irregular operations have taken place promoted by different actors. Furthermore, policies focused on regularization which have been promoted, have few intervention mechanisms, a fact that becomes critical, especially for the urban problems it causes. The main aim of this article is to present a classification over different modes of urban land acquirement taking place out of both urban and civil legislations. Afterwards, different informal settlement typologies are described, as well as the policies focused on them, together with their respective effects and impacts.

Freedom for rent. Informal housing market of Caracas

For years it was believed that in Caracas an informal rental housing market did not exist. A survey (n:832) in seven informal areas shows the opposite. The article analyzes the socio-legal aspects and characteristics of the market: the negotiated property, the rent, the actors and the norms that regulate the market. It is concluded that the Venezuelan State, with its controls and social policies, has become the principal promoter of the informal rental market and that because of the freedom to rent, the poor are the real estate agents that contribute most to meeting the increasing demand for housing.

Social housing and land use planning in Medellin during the period 2006-2011. Steps towards socio economic and residential segregation

This paper presents an approach to the relationship between land use planning and socioeconomic residential segregation, from the location of social housing in Medellin, Colombia, during the period 2006-2011. The first part introduces the land use regulations regarding the location of social housing, identifying ambiguities in the current spatial plan. Next, we present the intersection of  regulatory information and the location of the projects that were under construction during the  study period, highlighting the need to consider the location as an important characteristic of social housing and residential segregation as a phenomenon that must be recognized and worked on land  use planning in our cities.

The avatars of housing in Latin American urban and regional research (1990-2012)

The review of the terms used as keywords in three journals (published in Mexico and Chile) and the Brazilian meetings of regional and urban research are used to analyze the trends in housing research. Their dynamics are interpreted in the light of the general changes identified for urban and regional  research, synthesized by other authors as the emergence of new research topics and agents of urban change (civil society, participation, environment, gender) and the process of globalization (in its facets  of productive restructuration, job flexibility, social exclusion) as a general framework of analysis. It is found that the central themes of research in housing relate primarily to government action in  housing. New concerns, such as citizen participation, the environment or gender are linked to these actions as normative elements to the evaluation of programs or policies, but not as autonomous fields of study of the housing.In addition to this central concern, a significant growth of academic  production and  ome indication of the internationalization of research are mentioned

Informal housing in the XXI century. Characteristics of the informal land and housing supply in Bogota during the first decade of the XXI century

This article characterizes the conditions of the informal land and housing supply during the first decade of the xxi century in Bogota, regarding magnitude and location of the informal urban growth (new occupations in the periphery and informal densification of consolidated areas), housing  conditions in recent occupations and the characteristics of the land market. The situation of the  last decade has been reconstructed based in aerial photography analysis, census data quantification  and data analysis from planning and control public entities. Results suggest that due to the relative  land scarcity in Bogotá, among other aspects, the informal market dynamics have experimented changes compared to previous decades, because the growth in consolidated urban areas becomes  more important than the informal urbanization of the peripheries, but at the same time informality  transcends the municipal perimeter to the neighboring municipalities.