Achievements & Highlights

Legal

Achievements

Achievements and Highlights


Howard Mann’s career is focused on bringing new thinking to major international law challenges.

Early in his career he was legal advisor to the Canadian delegations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1989-1992), and the NAFTA environmental agreement (1992-1993). Howard led significant contributions to both agreements.


Since then, Howard has appeared before Parliamentary committees, and served on advisory panels for the Government of Canada, OECD, United Nations, International Bar Association and International Commission of Jurists. He has pioneered civil society engagement in international arbitrations, published ground-breaking analyses of international investment law and arbitration and facilitated multiple international negotiations


  • Select Achievements and Highlights
    • Appointed as Adjunct Professor, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, specializing in international economic law and globalization. 
    • Appointment as international arbitrator, St. Patrick v. Venezuela, ICSID, 2017
    • Member of the drafting group of the OECD Guiding Principles for Durable Extractive Contracts, 2016-2020.
    • Providing legal and policy advice to developing country governments on investment treaty negotiations, now numbering over 75 governments, 2005–present.
    • Lead consulting lawyer, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), preparation of SADC Model Bilateral Investment Treaty Template and Commentary, 2010-2012; and revised text, 2016-2017.
    • Lead expert advisor, COMESA Common Investment Area Agreement, negotiation of updated regional investment treaty, 2017.
    • Lead, SADC/IISD Training Programme, Negotiating International Investment Treaties, Pretoria, 30 July-3 August 2012.
    • Provides legal advice to several developing country governments on domestic laws relating to foreign investment, in particular in Africa, 2010-present.
    • Member of advisory team to Government of Ecuador, Ministerio de Recursos Naturales no Renovables, Proyecto de Diseño de Contrato Minero (Model National Mine Development Contract project), June-October 2010.
    • Member of the Drafting Committee and the Administrative Committee for the development of the International Bar Association’s Model Mining Development Agreement for use in developing countries, 2009-2012.
    • Advisory role to legal drafters for Prof. John Ruggie, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for Business and Human Rights; prepared commissioned paper, “International Investment Agreements, Business and Human Rights: Key Issues and Opportunities”. (2008-2011)
    • Team leader, training session on international investment law for developing country investment treaty negotiators, at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago Chile (2007), involving over 20 private practice, government and non-governmental lawyers.
    • Team leader, similar training session for eastern African countries, led by IISD in association with the Trade Policy Training Center for Africa (TRAPCA), in Arusha, Tanzania, 2009.
    • Lead drafter, first ever amicus curiae submission in international investment law arbitrations, in Methanex v. United States, 2000–2005.
    • Lead drafter, first amicus curiae submission under International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) revised Arbitration Rules, in Biwater v. Tanzania, 2006–2007.
    • Lead writer, IISD Model International Agreement on Investment for Sustainable Development, 2004–2005.
    • 2004–2005, Special Counsel on behalf of municipal governments and others, Federal Court of Appeal, Canada, in Sumas Energy 2, Inc. v. Canada (National Energy Board) (Federal Court of Appeal)[2006]1 F.C.R. 456, the first case in Canada’s domestic courts to address the scope of NAFTA’s Chapter Eleven on Investment.
    • Prepared international law and Canadian constitutional law case materials for Supreme Court of Canada and Federal Court of Canada cases on international sovereign immunity (United States of America v. Public Service Alliance of Canada [1992] 2 S.C.R. 50), and Canadian and international environmental law.
    • Member of Canadian delegation to multiple international negotiations at the United Nations, including climate change, hazardous waste, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)1992, and in NAFTA and bilateral US-Canada negotiations. Received Prime Ministerial citation for work relating to UNCED, 1992.
    • Contributed legal advice on the preparation of several pieces of Canadian federal environmental law, including the Canadian Environmental Impact Assessment Act and regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and Supreme Court of Canada cases on environmental jurisdiction.

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