Karl P. Sauvant

Karl P. Sauvant (born 1944) is Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), and Lecturer in Law at the Center for International Commercial and Investment Arbitration, Columbia University, New York City. He was also Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. He was Director of the Investment and Enterprise Division at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 2001 to 2005, where he also served for many years as Chief of the research section.

Karl P. Sauvant
Academic career
Field	Foreign Direct Investment, International Business, Development, International Political Economy
Institution	Columbia University, New York; United Nations (UNCTAD), Geneva
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania (PhD), University of Pennsylvania (MA), Freie Universität Berlin (BA)
Contributions	World Investment Report

Sauvant is an expert in the field of foreign direct investment (FDI), working on policies that increase the development benefits of FDI flows. He is known for a number of international initiatives and contributions to FDI research and policy. In 1991, he created the World Investment Report, a prestigious annual report on FDI and development published by the United Nations, and was its team leader and lead author until 2004. He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia FDI Perspectives, was co-founder and co-editor of the United Nations Transnational Corporations journal, and was founder and editor of the Yearbook on International Investment Law & Policy. Sauvant established the Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment in 2006, serving as its Executive Director until February 2012. He has published extensively in scholarly publications and books in the fields of foreign direct investment and development, international investment law and policy, and international political economy.

Sauvant has initiated and championed several important policy initiatives, including a proposal for an international support program to facilitate sustainable investment which was taken forward in the World Trade Organization, where it led to the conclusion of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement. He championed the establishment of CONNEX (Contract Negotiation Support), a facility assisting developing countries in negotiating better investment contracts, especially in extractive industries, where he serves as the Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee. He has also advocated for the establishment of an Advisory Centre on International Investment Law, which has been taken forward in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for the establishment of an advisory centre on international investment dispute resolution.

Sauvant is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and was awarded a Distinguished Honorary Fellowship of the European International Business Academy.

Education

Sauvant completed his Ph.D. (1975) and M.A. (1969) in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and his B.A. equivalent in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin.

Publications

Selected works

• Berger, Alex; Kagan, Yardenne; Sauvant, Karl P. (2022). Investment Facilitation for Development: A Toolkit for Policymakers. Second edition. International Trade Centre.

• Sauvant, Karl P.; Ortino, Federico (2017). Improving the International Investment Law and Policy Regime: Options for the Future. Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. ISBN 978-952-281-217-9.

• Sauvant, Karl P. (ed.). Yearbook on International Investment Law & Policy. Oxford University Press, various years.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

• Sauvant, Karl P.; Alvarez, José Enrique (2011). "International Investment Law in Transition (Introduction)". In Alvarez, José Enrique; Sauvant, Karl P.; with Ahmed, Kamil Gerard; del P. Vizcaino, Gabriela (eds.). The Evolving International Investment Regime: Expectations, Realities, Options. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199793624.

• Messerlin, Patrick A.; Sauvant, Karl P. (1990). The Uruguay Round: Services in the World Economy. Washington and New York: The World Bank and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations. ISBN 978-0821313749.

• Sauvant, Karl P. (1986). International Transactions in Services: The Politics of Transborder Data Flows. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0367006402.

• Sauvant, Karl P. (1981). The Group of 77: Evolution, Structure, Organization. Dobbs Ferry: Oceana. ISBN 978-0379009644.

• Sauvant, Karl P., ed. (1981). Changing Priorities on the International Agenda: The New International Economic Order. Oxford: Pergamon. ISBN 978-0080268064.