A/HRC/11/13 page 10 27. To provide greater clarity about what is currently expected of companies under corporate law as it relates to human rights, the Special Representative is pleased that 19 leading law firms from around the world have volunteered to survey corporate law provisions in over 40 jurisdictions.31 The firms will document how the consideration of human rights by companies and their officers are addressed, explicitly or by implication, in laws and guidelines relating to incorporation, directors’ duties, reporting, stakeholder engagement, and corporate governance generally. They will also report on how corporate regulators and courts apply these laws and guidelines, and whether legal or policy reform is being considered. The results will be published, and the Special Representative then will consult widely on what recommendations he might make to States. B. Investment and trade agreements 28. Despite the current downturn, investment and trade will resume as engines of economic growth, and sustainable growth remains the necessary condition for economic and social development. The challenge in the short run is to avoid tit-for-tat escalation of protectionism which deepened and lengthened the Great Depression, ultimately giving rise to some of the worst horrors of the twentieth century. 29. History has also witnessed successive waves of States arbitrarily expropriating foreign investments, and in prior eras, the “gunboat diplomacy” that was sometimes triggered in response. The modern investment regime is based on international investment treaties and contracts, often coupled with binding investor-State arbitration, all of which increased exponentially in the 1990s. 30. Nevertheless, recent experience suggests that some treaty guarantees and contract provisions may unduly constrain the host Government’s ability to achieve its legitimate policy objectives, including its international human rights obligations. That is because under threat of binding international arbitration, a foreign investor may be able to insulate its business venture from new laws and regulations, or seek compensation from the Government for the cost of compliance.32 31. A Norwegian draft model agreement and commentary address such concerns about bilateral investment treaties. The commentary notes that these treaties pose potential risks to Norway’s own highly developed system of regulations and protection, including environmental and social policies. It also stresses the vulnerability of developing countries to agreements “that tie up political freedom of action and the exercise of authority ... ”.33 The draft model agreement 31 http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Corporate-law-firms-advise-Ruggie-23-Mar-2009.pdf. 32 Piero Foresti, Laura de Carli and others v. Republic of South Africa (ICSID Case No. ARB (AF)/07/1) has attracted international attention because it involves that country’s black economic empowerment laws. 33 “Comments on the Model for Future Investment Agreements (English Translation)”, 19 December 2007 (copy on file with the Special Representative), p. 11.