The thesis traces the patterns and trends in the development of the law-making function of the OECD on the example of international legal regulation of investment and the activities of multinational enterprises. First, the institutional structure of the OECD and the procedure for approval of decisions and recommendations by its highest governing body, the Council, are described. The types of voting procedures introduced in the OECD have also been studied, namely: mutual consent (consensus); unanimity and voting by qualified majority. As a result, it is concluded that there is a rather flexible system of decision-making and recommendations within this Organization, because, for example, consensus in the process of developing decisions and recommendations in standing committees is equivalent to consensus in the OECD Council; the involvement of third countries in the work of the OECD bodies ensures the development of decisions and recommendations that take into account the interests of a wide range of states, etc. It has also been concluded that the introduction of a decision-making procedure "in the absence of objections from 15% or more of the Member States" is a kind of mutual agreement (consensus), because full unanimity is not a mandatory sign of consensus, and 15% is the critical share of the Member States, the presence of which indicates the absence of consensus.
In the course of the analysis of the legal forms of consolidation of OECD standards, the decisions of the OECD Council, the recommendations of the OECD Council, the OECD declarations, international treaties, agreements and mutual understanding developed within the framework of the OECD were considered. Due to the specific legal nature of the decisions of the OECD Council, which are not international treaties in the sense of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, but by virtue of Art. 5 of the OECD Conventions of 1960 have binding legal force for their participants, a number of factors that contribute to the mandatory implementation of these decisions in practice have been identified, namely: the OECD enlargement process is gradual and brings together states that share common values; Member States, the EU and certain third countries are often involved in the work of various OECD bodies, which gives them the opportunity to participate in the development of various acts of the Organization and determines their further implementation. The question of the content and legal force of the "OECD acquis" in the modern period was also considered, as a result of which it was established that the use of this concept in various acts of the Organization did not affect its acquisition of the meaning that the concept of "EU acquis" has.
The OECD cooperation with third countries is an important area of its work, which ensures not only the broad implementation of the Organization's standards, but also the participation of these countries in the law-making process. The forms of OECD cooperation with third countries and international organizations and forums have been continuously modified and improved, resulting in the functioning of the system of Global Relations with third countries, international economic organizations and forums within the Organization, which is implemented, in particular, at the level of: states that are in the process of becoming members of the OECD; key partnership (there is a system in relations with the 5 largest economies of the world (Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and RSA); cooperation within the framework of regional approaches; country approach (which, compared to the key partnership, is perceived as subsidiary, additional to the main ones, the form of the OECD implementation of its global ambitions, and is carried out only in those areas of the economy in which the particular state sees the need).
The OECD standards on investment issues and the activities of multinational enterprises are now enshrined in the OECD Code on Liberalization of Capital Movements of 1961 and the OECD Code on Current Invisible Transactions of 1961, as well as in the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Companies of 1976, which consists of the text of the Declaration itself and two annexes thereto: Annex I "Guidelines for Multinational Companies: Recommendations for Responsible Business in a Global Context" and Annex II "Conflict Requirements Relating to Multinational Enterprises". The specificity of the 1976 OECD Declaration and its Annexes is that their legal force is hybrid, that is, it varies depending on the object and subject of legal regulation, namely, the 1976 Declaration and its Annex II are legally non-binding documents, while the Guidelines contained in its Annex I are binding for the member states of this Declaration and recommendatory for multinational enterprises operating on the territories of these states.
