THE IMPACT OF BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES ON MINERAL LAW REFORM IN RESOURCE-BASED DEVELOPING ECONOMIES: A SOUTH AFRICAN CASE STUDY

• Jurisdiction: Derecho Internacional

International Mining Law and Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean
(Apr 2005)
CHAPTER 4A
THE IMPACT OF BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES ON MINERAL LAW REFORM IN RESOURCE-BASED DEVELOPING ECONOMIES: A SOUTH AFRICAN CASE STUDY
Peter Samuel Guy Leon
Webber Wentzel Bowens
Johannesburg, South Africa
PETER SAMUEL GUY LEON

Peter Leon is an equity partner with Webber Wentzel Bowens, attorneys, Johannesburg and previously was a member of the Gauteng legislature, where he served as leader of the official opposition. He practises in the regulatory law field, including natural resources law, competition and financial services law, constitutional and administrative law and public international law.

Mr Leon received his BA from the University of Cape Town, where he also obtained his LLB degree cum laude. He subsequently studied at Cambridge University, England, where he obtained an LLM degree with first class honours and completed a post-graduate dissertation in administrative law. Mr Leon was elected senior scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge for academic achievement.

Admitted as an attorney in 1983, Mr Leon became a partner of Webber Wentzel in 1986. During the South African state of emergency, Mr Leon was chairman of Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg. In 1991, Mr Leon was elected to the council of the South African Institute of Race Relations and continues to serve in this position.

Mr Leon has acted as outside general counsel to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and is an honorary member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange club. In 2000, Mr Leon was appointed as chairman of the adjudication panel for the JSE's electronic settlement system, STRATE.

Mr Leon was chosen in 1993 to represent the South African attorneys' profession in their quest for rights of audience in the High Court, which was granted in 1996. He has published widely, on a variety of matters, legal and political. Mr Leon was previously a member of the Law Society of South Africa's standing committee on constitutional affairs and human rights and was extensively involved in the formulation of constitutional legislation and in submissions on South Africa's final Constitution to the Constitutional Assembly. During the certification process of the final Constitution in the Constitutional Court, Mr Leon led the Law Society's legal team.

As chairman of the Gauteng province's standing committee on public safety and security between 1994 and 1996, Mr Leon headed a multi-party task team on metropolitan policing, which recommended the introduction of city-based policing to Gauteng and drafted the white paper which led to the introduction of national legislation on this issue in 1998.

In 1997, Mr Leon was awarded the Digma prize for the best contribution to the South African attorneys' journal, De Rebus.

In November 2000, Mr Leon was appointed by the South African government as chairman of a national ministerial...