Foreign Investment Laws in Developing Countries

Rather than extensively analyzing the various laws of Argentina, Mexico, and Nigeria that are specifically designed to encourage foreign investment, this note endeavors to explain how the laws of these countries that have as the primary function the monitoring and restricting of foreign investment activity are able to refrain from severely discouraging the foreign investment needed to promote industrialization. The tendency of LDCs to liberalize their restrictive foreign investment laws over the last few years demonstrates the growing importance of minimizing the adverse impact of legal constraints on foreign capital investment.