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Dr Kate Miles

Profile

Degrees

BA LLB LLM (Hons I) Auck LLM NYU PhD Sydney


Courses Taught

  • International Law
  • International Investment Law
  • Trade and the Environment


Areas of Interest

  • Public International Law
  • International Environmental Law
  • International Investment Law


Brief Biographical Detail

Kate Miles is a Lecturer in International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, specialising in international investment law and international environmental law. She serves on the International Law Association’s Study Group on the Role of Soft Law Instruments in International Investment Law. She is a Research Fellow with the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, Montreal, Canada. She coordinates the International Investment Law Network for the Society of International Economic Law and is a participant in UNCTAD’s Expert Group on International Investment Agreements. She is a member of the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law and the Sydney Centre for International Law, and she is also an Assistant Editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, during July–December 2010.

Kate holds an LL.M. in Environmental Law (Hons I) from the University of Auckland and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from NYU School of Law. She was the recipient of the Geoffrey Powell Prize and the Gary Davies Medal as an undergraduate at the University of Auckland. She was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award to pursue her doctorate at the University of Sydney on the interrelationship between international investment law and principles of environmental protection. She has also practiced in leading commercial law firms in Auckland and Sydney, including at Allens Arthur Robinson.

Publications

Book | Book Chapters | Articles in Refereed Journals | Book Reviews | Conference / Seminar Papers | Media

Book

  • Miles, K, The Origins of International Investment Law: Empire, Environment and the Safeguarding of Capital, Cambridge University Press: UK, forthcoming 2012
  • Brown, C & Miles, K (eds), Evolution in Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration, Cambridge University Press: UK (2011)

Book Chapters

  • Brown, C & Miles, K, 'Introduction: evolution in investment treaty law and arbitration' in C Brown & K Miles (eds), Evolution in Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration, Cambridge University Press: UK (2011) 3-16
  • Miles, K, 'Blue Oil: Water Resources, Social Justice, and the International Law on Foreign Investment' in S Alam, N Klein & J Overland (eds), Globalisation and the Quest for Social and Environmental Justice: The Relevance of International Law in an Evolving World Order, Routledge: United Kingdom (2011) 53-76
  • Miles, K, ‘Sustainable Development, National Treatment and Like Circumstances in Investment Law’ in M Gehring, M Cordonier-Segger & A Newcombe (eds), Sustainable Development in International Investment Law, Kluwer: The Netherlands (2011) 265-294
  • Miles, K, ‘Reconceptualising International Investment Law: Bringing the Public Interest into Private Business’ in Meredith Kolsky Lewis and Susy Frankel (eds), International Economic Law and National Autonomy, Cambridge University Press: UK (2010) 295-319
  • Miles, K, ‘Targeting Financiers: Can Voluntary Codes of Conduct for the Investment and Financing Sectors Achieve Environmental and Sustainability Objectives?', in Kurt Deketelaere et al (eds) Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation-Volume V, Oxford University Press: UK (2008) 947-962

Articles in Refereed Journals

  • Kate Miles, ‘Investing in Adaptation: Mobilising Private Finance for Adaptation in Developing States’ (2011) 2 Carbon & Climate Law Review 190-208
  • Kate Miles, ‘Arbitrating Climate Change: Regulatory Regimes and Investor-State Disputes’ (2010) 1(1) Climate Law 63-92
  • Miles, K ‘International Investment Law: Origins, Imperialism and Conceptualizing the Environment’ (2010) 21(1) Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 1-47
  • Nottage, L & Miles, K, ‘‘Back to the Future’ for Investor-State Arbitrations: Revising Rules in Australia and Japan to Meet Public Interests’ (2009) 26(1) Journal of International Arbitration 25
  • Miles, K, ‘Transforming Foreign Investment: Globalisation, the Environment, and a Climate of Controversy’ (2007) 7 Macquarie Law Journal 81
  • Miles, K, ‘Innovative Financing: Filling in the Gaps on the Road to Sustainable Environmental Funding’ (2005) 14(3) Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 202

Book Reviews

  • Miles, K, 'Review of Reconciling Trade and Environment, Edith Brown Weiss, John H Jackson, & Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder (eds), ' (2009) 18(1) Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 104-105
  • Miles, K, ‘Review of Socially Responsible Investment Law, Benjamin J Richardson’ (2009) 12(1) Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law 237-239
  • Miles, K, ‘Review of The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law, Daniel Bodansky, Jutta Brunnee & Ellen Hey (eds), Oxford University Press (2007) 1056pp, ISBN 9780199269709’ (2007) 10(3&4) Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law 303-305
  • Miles, K, ‘Review of Environmental Law for Sustainability, Benjamin J Richardson & Stepan Wood (eds.)’ (2006) 15(3) Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 352

Conference Papers/Seminar Papers

  • Miles, K, 'International Investment Law, Empire and the Environment', presented at The Lauterpacht Centre Lecture Series, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, November 2010 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, 'Private Finance for Climate Adaptation', presented at Climate Change Governance After Copenhagen, University College London (UCL) and University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, November 2010 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, 'Soft Law Instruments in Environmental Law: Models for International Investment Law?', presented at the 74th Conference of the International Law Association, The Hague, The Netherlands, August 2010 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, 'International Investment Law and Non-Investment Issues: Engaging with Cross-Cutting Issues', presented at International Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration: Evolution and Revolution in Substance and Procedure, University of Sydney, February 2010.
  • Miles, K, ‘Climate Finance for Adaptation in Developing States: Mobilising the Private Sector’, presented at Legal Aspects of Technology Transfer and Carbon Financing, Experts Panel Side Event, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, United Nations Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, December 2009 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, Experts Panel, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, World Trade & Investment Law for a Low-Carbon Economy: Development & Regional Implications of Environmental Pricing Reform, Seventh World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference, Geneva, December 2009 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, Experts Panel, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, Renewable Energy and Technology – Trade and Investment Law Implications, ICTSD Trade and Development Symposium, Geneva, December 2009 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, ‘Arbitrating Climate Change: Regulatory Regimes and Investor-State Disputes’, presented at Climate Change in the Courts: Emerging Patterns, Closed Workshop, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, November 2009 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, & Park, S, ‘Sustainable Finance: Codes, International Organisations and Law’, presented at Faculty of Law Seminar Series, University of Sydney, October 2009.
  • Miles, K, ‘Imperialism, Eurocentrism and International Investment Law: Whereto from Here for Asia?’, presented at International Law in a Multi-Polar and Multi-Civilizational World: Asian Perspectives, Challenges and Contributions, the Second Biennial General Conference of the Asian Society of International Law, Tokyo, Japan, August 2009.
  • Newcombe, A & Miles, K, ‘Sustainable Development in World Investment Law: Recent Developments in Bilateral Investment Treaties and Decisions of Arbitral Tribunals’, presented at Treaty Regimes in Practice: Domestic Implementation of International Law on Sustainable Development, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law and McGill Law Faculty, Montreal, Canada, May 2009 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, ‘A Political Juncture for International Investment Law: Breaking from the Past or Reproducing Economic Imperialism?’ presented at The Politics of International Economic Law: The Next Four Years, American Society of International Law, International Economic Law Interest Group Biennial Conference, Washington DC, United States, November 2008.
  • Miles, K, ‘Foreign Investment Law and the UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol: Barriers to Addressing Climate Change’, presented at Climate Change and its Challenges for the International Legal System, Annual Conference, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London, October 2008.
  • Miles, K, ‘The Role of the Private Sector in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation’, presented at Climate Change and Developing Countries: International Legal and Financial Instruments, Asia-Pacific Regional Seminar, International Development Law Organization, Sydney, October 2008 (invited speaker).
  • Miles, K, ‘Investing in Adaptation: Financing Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Developing States’, presented at Climate Law in Developing Countries Post 2012: North and South Perspectives, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Ottawa, Canada, September 2008.
  • Miles, K, ‘Acclimatising International Investment Law: The Interaction between Investment Rules and Climate Change Mitigation Measures’, presented at Intersections between Global Climate Change Law and Policy, Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law Conference, Sydney, August 2008.
  • Miles, K, ‘International Investment Law and Climate Change: Issues in the Transition to a Low Carbon World’, presented at New Horizons of International Economic Law, The Inaugural Conference of the Society of International Economic Law, Geneva, Switzerland, July 2008.
  • Miles, K & Nottage, L, ‘Back to the Future for Investor-State Arbitrations: Revising Rules for Public Interests’, presented at Security, Scarcity, Struggle: The Dilemmas of International Law, the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, Canberra, June 2008.
  • Miles, K & Nottage, L, ‘Back to the Future for Investor-State Arbitrations: Revising Rules to Meet Public Interests’, presented at Sydney Centre for International Law Seminar Series, Sydney Law School, April 2008.
  • Miles, K, ‘Reconceptualising International Investment Law: Bringing the Public Interest into Private Business’, presented at International Economic Law and National Autonomy: Convergence or Divergence?, The Inaugural Conference of the New Zealand Centre of International Economic Law, Wellington, New Zealand, December, 2007.
  • Miles, K, ‘Funding Climate Change Adaptation: A Role for Decentralised Innovative Financing Mechanisms’, presented at The Third Plenary Meeting, Leading Group on Solidarity Levies to Fund Development, Seoul, South Korea, September 2007 (invited participant).
  • Miles, K, ‘Investor-State Arbitration and Broader Issues for Public International Law’, presented at the Diploma on International Commercial Arbitration, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Australia)/UNSW, Sydney, July 2007.
  • Miles, K, ‘Targeting Financiers: Can Voluntary Codes of Conduct for the Investment and Financing Sectors Achieve Environmental and Sustainability Objectives?’, presented at Instruments of Change for a Sustainable Economy, The Seventh Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Ottawa, Canada, October 2006.
  • Miles, K, ‘Globalisation and the Transformation of International Law: Collision Course or Harmony for Foreign Investment and the Environment’, presented at Globalisation and the Quest for Social and Environmental Justice: The Relevance of International Law in an Evolving World Order, Macquarie University Law Seminar Series, Sydney, August 2006.
  • Miles, K, ‘The Philosophy of Environmentalism’, Intersections Seminar Series, University of Sydney, Faculty of Law, May 2006.
  • Miles, K, ‘Innovative Financing for Biodiversity Conservation’, presented at Biodiversity Conservation, Law and Livelihoods: Bridging the North-South Divide, The Third Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Sydney, July 2005.

Media

  • Miles, K, Interview, Carbon & Environment Daily, ‘Foreign Investors Empowered to Slow Climate Policy, Lawyer Warns’, 19 August 2008.
  • Miles, K, Interview, ABC National Radio, ‘China: Green Credit Scheme to Fight Pollution’, 3 August 2007.