Scott Macpherson, a lawyer in the London arbitration team at Hogan Lovells International LLP, spoke about foreign investments for a guest lecture delivered to Kent LLM students studying a module on International Law on Foreign Investment.
His lecture, in March, focused on Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and the various issues that come into play when seeking to protect the interests of foreign investors and their investments. An experienced arbitration lawyer himself, Mr Macpherson was well-placed to give a nuanced and practical lesson, drawing on both professional knowledge he had gained in the field as well as the reading material that had been assigned to the students ahead of the class.
What made this experience exceptional was the opportunity to learn how the academic concepts we had learned in class play out in real world foreign investment situations. It was particularly interesting to hear about Mr Macpherson’s views on the controversies surrounding the practice of ISDS in general. The situation was not as black and white as some of us had thought and he explained how the landscape of ISDS seemed to be slowly but surely moving forward in favour of states, as opposed to being consistently biased towards foreign investors, as many critics claim.
Mr Macpherson kindly gave his contact details to students at the end of the lesson and it was such a positive experience to be able to make a genuine professional contact, thanks to an educational opportunity. I would definitely recommend the idea of inviting professionals as guest speakers to enhance the learning experience.