Government Regulation and Public Sector Law

On Oct. 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the first civil penalty under the Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP), which prohibits or requires notification of certain U.S.

The United States Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has released its 2025 Annual Report to Congress, revealing significant trends in cross-border investment reviews and enforcement activities. The report demonstrates CFIUS's intensified focus on identifying unfiled transactions, monitoring mitigation agreements, and scrutinizing deals involving critical technologies and sensitive data.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed major changes to foreign investment disclosure rules for agricultural land, expanding definitions and tightening requirements that could significantly impact commercial real estate, energy companies, and institutional investors. What will USDA's next steps be, and how might administrative law principles shape the final rule and potential litigation? Arnold & Porter attorneys with AFIDA expertise and administrative law experience examine the proposed rule, publ

Two 2025 ICSID tribunals reached opposite conclusions in mining disputes involving Indigenous consultation rights under ILO Convention 169. This analysis examines whether Lupaka Gold v. Peru and Kappes v. Guatemala represent conflicting precedents or coherent expressions of the same legal framework, revealing distinct factual pathways that determine investor versus state-favorable outcomes in Indigenous rights disputes.

Directs federal agencies to expand hunting access on federal lands, authorize hunting in specified national monuments, revise regulations restricting recreational access...

Five foundational ISDS decisions reveal how investment tribunals balance Indigenous consultation rights under ILO Convention 169 with treaty protections for foreign mining investors. This analysis examines the evolving legal framework governing State obligations, social license requirements, and the circumstances under which community opposition triggers treaty liability.

With the ever-growing barrage of rhetoric over just how, when, and if, AI will kill us all, the conversation also lends itself to, do we believe it will be AI that kills us, or a bad actor using AI? If I showed you a picture of East Asia at night from space and pointed out that you can’t see North Korea for the lack of available electricity, (It’s 99% blacked out, and only Pyongyang shows a small cluster of light) would you think for a minute that they would have the tech savvy, and high end software, or even hardware, necessary to steal $6.7 billion in crypto since 2017?

On Oct. 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the first civil penalty under the Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP), which prohibits or requires notification of certain U.S.

The Communications and Technology Transparency Act of 2026 proposes significant reforms to the FCC's Covered List framework, which restricts communications equipment deemed to pose national security risks. The bipartisan legislation would broaden the scope of products subject to restriction while simultaneously limiting future additions to items from foreign adversaries and introducing new transparency requirements.

The executive branch possesses substantial authority to reshape federal cannabis policy without waiting for Congress. Through strategic use of existing statutes, the President could direct agencies to establish scientific pilot programs for medical and adult-use marijuana, initiate descheduling reviews, and create regulatory frameworks that demonstrate workable alternatives while building pressure for comprehensive legislative reform.

Congressional appropriators face mounting challenges as FY27 budget negotiations stall while the federal debt surpasses $40 trillion. The White House's attempt to reshape NIH grant decisions through political appointees sparked immediate pushback from key lawmakers, raising fundamental questions about executive authority over congressionally mandated funding processes.

As the US and China compete for primacy in space, the stakes extend far beyond national pride. The race to establish infrastructure beyond Earth—from orbital manufacturing to lunar resource extraction—will determine which companies and countries build and profit from the next economy, and on what terms everyone else can access it.