PhD defence
Human Rights Considerations in International Investment Law: A Theory of Harmonization
- N.J. Diamond
- Date
- Thursday 7 May 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Supervisor(s)
Summary
“Harmonization” (however defined) has emerged in the international legal scholarship as the counterweight to the so-called fragmentation of the international legal order. Fragmentation results in the proliferation of specialized international legal regimes, including international investment law and international human rights law. The scholarship has generally argued that loosely connected regimes and their interactions are problematic because they threaten the (perceived) internal coherence of the international legal order. The scholarship has provided various solutions, such as application of Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the so-called principle of systemic integration, to motivate harmonization. This thesis argues that such solutions are misplaced. Harmonization must be disentangled from normative arguments as to internal coherence. This thesis reconceptualizes harmonization not as an endpoint for preserving the internal coherence of the international legal order, but as a process for arriving at potential solutions to the practical tensions that arise between international investment law and international human rights law.
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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