Abstract as per original application
(English/Chinese): |
This project will explore the development of community-investor dispute prevention and facilitation mechanisms in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (“BRI”). As an infrastructure financing initiative, the BRI aims to strengthen infrastructure linkages along the Belt and Road corridor spanning Asia, Africa and Europe. Given the wide-scale impact of China’s multi-jurisdictional development initiative, understanding how best to coordinate with local communities is vital to realizing the benefits of sustainable growth. In the 20 years since the development of the first multilateral community-investor dispute resolution mechanism – established by the International Finance Centre/World Bank ("IFC") – much has been learned about public facilitation, community engagement and dispute prevention during the early stages of major infrastructure development programs. With the creation of the International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement Organization under the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in April 2019, dispute prevention through community engagement has taken center stage in China’s dispute settlement policy and has become a mandatory pre-infrastructure project assessment requirement. Thus far, only limited systematic examination has been undertaken of the contours of community-investor dispute prevention, its relationship with formal dispute resolution mechanisms, and overall contribution to sustainable development in the context of the BRI. To address this gap, the present research will be the first comprehensive study of its kind to analyze mandatory BRI dispute prevention mechanisms within the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ("AIIB") and the Asian Development Bank ("ADB") to determine whether ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?’ in community-investor dispute resolution. In particular, it will assess the impact of the nature of community engagement (elective/mandatory) on the incidence, frequency and subsequent resolution of project related disputes. Drawing on a case-based methodology, it will explore the achievements, challenges and lessons learned in community-investor dispute prevention and resolution for major infrastructure projects with a view to providing relevant recommendations from a devolved collaboration perspective. The project will result in new insights regarding the conditions for successful community-investor engagement applicable not only in the greater China region but beyond. The findings will be disseminated through a research monograph, journal articles and conference presentations.
本項目旨在探討在“一帶一路”倡議的背景下建立社區-投資者爭端預防和促進機製的可行性。作為一項基礎設施建設融資倡議，“一帶一路”旨在加強橫跨亞洲、非洲和歐洲的“一帶一路”經濟走廊在基礎設施建設方面的聯系。鑒於中國的多管轄區發展倡議產生的廣泛影響，了解與當地社區進行協調的最優方式，對於實現整體利益最大化至關重要。自國際金融中心/世界銀行製定的第一個多邊社區-投資者爭端解決機製建立以來的20年裏，我們在重大基礎設施發展項目的早期階段，在公共便利、社區參與和爭端預防等方面收獲良多。隨著2019年4月中國國際貿易促進委員會下屬的國際商事爭端預防與解決組織的成立，爭端預防在中國的爭端解決政策中占據了核心位置。然而，到目前為止，對於社區-投資者爭端預防的框架、其與正式爭端解決機製的關系以及在“一帶一路”背景下對可持續發展的整體貢獻等方面，系統性地研究非常有限。為了彌補這一空白，本項目將是第一個對亞洲基礎設施投資銀行和亞洲開發銀行框架內現有的“一帶一路”投資爭端預防機製進行的全面研究。本項目將基於案例分析的研究方法，探討在重大基礎設施建設項目的社區-投資者爭端預防和解決方面的成就、挑戰和經驗，以期從權力下放的合作角度提供相關建議。該項目將就投資者與社區成功合作的條件提出新的見解，並且不僅適用於大中華地區，也將適用於其他地區。研究結果將通過專著、期刊文章和會議展示來傳播。
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