On May 13, 2022, the thirty-eighth keynote speech of the "Fudan Transnational Corporations and Law Forum" was held successfully online. The speech entitled "The Reform of the New Generation of International Investment Treaties and Its Influence over TNCs" was delivered byProfessor LIU Sun of the South China Normal University, commented by Associate Professor LIANG Danni of Sun Yat-sen University Law School, Associate Professor LIANG Yong of Fudan University Law School, and hosted by Professor CAI Congyan of Fudan University Law School.

Professor LIU first introduced the background against which traditional investment treaties formed and their characteristics. He then proceeded to a series of problems of traditional investment treaties with the purpose of disclosing the causes and background of the reform of the new generation of investment treaties. After introducing the specific manifestations of the new generation of investment treaties' reform, Professor LIU argued that this was not a genuine "reform" but rather a limited correction of the preexisting system, attempting to switch the paradigm of adjusting international investment relations. In his view, the effects of reform cannot be assessed solely according to the changes in the specific provisions of certain investment treaties, but also according to the actual application of these new provisions of investment treaties in future dispute resolution. Particularly, Professor LIU pointed out that the new generation of investment treaties failed to change the paradigm of adjusting the binary relation between foreign investors and the host country, without paying adequate attention to other stakeholders.

In the discussion session, Professor LIANG Danni and Professor LIANG Yong contributed insightful comments from the perspectives of international investors' current cognition of corporate responsibility, the contemporary risks confronting international investments, and the underlying purposes of investment agreements. Professor LIU responded to the comments and the questions raised by the audience.

On May 20, 2022, the Forum will host the thirty-ninth keynote speech entitled "The Impact of Marine Science and Technology on International Politics and the Law of the Sea System" by ZHANG Haiwen, Director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs (CIMA), Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China.