This book provides a conceptual and legal analysis of the core of investment protection guarantees that emerge from international treaties signed since 1959 for the promotion and protection of foreign investment. It focuses on both the origin and evolution of investment treaty standards. Beginning with origins, the work considers the broader context at the time when the first modern investment treaty was concluded. It goes on to examine the many decisions of ad hoc arbitral tribunals that have since been called upon to apply these treaties in order to resolve the several hundred investor-State disputes. It also looks at some of the recent investment treaties that have attempted to clarify and/or reform the content and scope of investment protection guarantees. Federico Ortino posits that the key investment protection provisions in investment treaties, and thus much of the controversy associated with such treaties, revolve around three concepts: legal stability, investment's value, and reasonableness. He argues that, from the very beginning, the protections afforded to foreign investments by modern investment treaties have been exceptionally broad, and as such restrictive of host States' ability to regulate. And whilst a growing number of investment treaty tribunals, as well as new investment treaties, have to some extent reined in such broad protections, the evolution of key investment protection standards has been marred by inconsistency and uncertainty.

This title provides a conceptual and legal analysis of the core of investment protection guarantees that emerge from international treaties signed since 1959 for the promotion and protection of foreign investment. It focuses on both the origin and evolution of investment treaty standards. Beginning with origins, the work considers the broader context at the time when the first modern investment treaty was concluded. It goes on to examine the many decisions of ad hoc arbitral tribunals that have since been called upon to apply these treaties in order to resolve the several hundred investor-State disputes. It also looks at some of the recent investment treaties that have attempted to clarify and/or reform the content and scope of investment protection guarantees.

The international legal framework governing foreign investment consists of a vast network of international investment agreements (IIAs) supplemented by the general rules of international law. Although other international treaties interact with this network in important ways, IIAs are the primary public international law instruments governing the promotion and protection of foreign investment. IIA texts differ in many important respects, but they are also remarkably similar in structure and content: most IIAs combine similar (sometimes identical) treaty-based standards of promotion and protection for foreign investment with an investor-state arbitration mechanism that allows foreign investors to enforce with a powerful and dynamic method of international treaty enforcement. The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive explanation of the substantive standards of treatment that states must accord to foreign investors and investment under IIAs.The uniqueness of the current IIA network is a product of an historical evolution going as far back as the Middle Ages. Prior to the twentieth century, international standards of foreign investment and investor protection developed primarily through the related processes of diplomatic protection and claims commissions. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the world economy became increasingly internationalized, the limits of the diplomatic protection model became apparent, particularly as controversies arose between capital exporting and importing states regarding the customary international law minimum standard of treatment to be accorded to foreign investors and investments. n the aftermath of the Second World War (WWII), the process of international economic integration was rekindled, leading to the emergence of the contemporary investment treaty framework. It is crucial to consider this historical development in order to better understand current debates and contentious issues in investment treaty law.This chapter is divided into five parts. Part I delves into the historical origins of international investment law. Part II then explores developments in the post- WWII period, setting the background for Part III, which discusses the origins and development of IIAs. Part IV provides an overview of the current status of the IIA network. Part V discusses the basic structure of IIAs.

These are Chapters Seven and Nine of Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy, and Interpretation, published by Oxford University Press in 2010. The book analyzes the key provisions of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), explaining the structure and policy of each provision, tracing the provision's origins and development, and synthesizing the arbitral awards that interpret it. The book also includes extensive discussion of the history and policy underlying international investment law and is the first book to offer a general theory of international investment law, arguing that investment treaties are based on six core principles - nondiscrimination, security, reasonableness, due process, transparency and access. These principles provide a basis for interpreting BIT provisions and understanding the relationship among them. The book covers the period from 1959, when Germany concluded its first bilateral investment treaty with Pakistan, through 2009, and thus provides a summary of the first 50 years of BIT programs worldwide. Chapter Seven discusses the norm of nondiscrimination, which appears in provisions guaranteeing national treatment, most-favored-nation treatment, and fair and equitable treatment and prohibiting unreasonable or discriminatory measures that impair investment. Chapter Nine discusses the economics of an open capital account and then analyzes several BIT provisions that address access to the host state's economy: the establishment provision, the currency transfers provision, the performance requirements provision, the entry and sojourn provision, and the employment provision. Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy, and Interpretation is part of a trilogy of books on international investment agreements. U.S. International Investment Agreements, published by Oxford University Press in 2009, presents a comprehensive analysis of the first 30 years of the current U.S. investment treaty program, including both BITs and free trade agreements (FTAs) with investment chapters. It traces the evolution of each provision in the U.S. model BITs, explains the policies underlying those provisions, describes modifications to the provisions in the signed BITs and FTAs, and synthesizes the international arbitral awards interpreting the provisions. Appendices contain the text of each of the U.S. model BITs used as a basis for successful negotiations. The book covers the period from 1977, when the Carter administration approved the inauguration of a U.S. BIT program, to 2007. Chapters One (“Introduction”) and Three (“The Evolution of the BIT Model Negotiating Text”) of that book have been posted separately. The First Bilateral Investment Treaties: U.S. Postwar Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation Treaties, published by Oxford University Press in 2017, traces the history of the U.S. postwar friendship, commerce and navigation (FCN) treaty program, including the process by which a treaty series initiated in 1776 to address trade and maritime relations was reconceptualized in the late 1940s as a program of investment treaties. It also describes the origins and meaning of the investment provisions that appeared in these treaties, provisions that are the precursors to the provisions that appear in contemporary bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) with investment provisions. Chapters One (“Introduction”) and Five (“The FCN Treaties Become Investment Treaties”) of that book have been posted separately.

This book provides a conceptual and legal analysis of the core of investment protection guarantees that emerge from international treaties signed since 1959 for the promotion and protection of foreign investment. It focuses on both the origin and evolution of investment treaty standards. Beginning with origins, the work considers the broader context at the time when the first modern investment treaty was concluded. It goes on to examine the many decisions of ad hoc arbitral tribunals that have since been called upon to apply these treaties in order to resolve the several hundred investor-State disputes. It also looks at some of the recent investment treaties that have attempted to clarify and/or reform the content and scope of investment protection guarantees. Federico Ortino posits that the key investment protection provisions in investment treaties, and thus much of the controversy associated with such treaties, revolve around three concepts: legal stability, investment's value, and reasonableness. He argues that, from the very beginning, the protections afforded to foreign investments by modern investment treaties have been exceptionally broad, and as such restrictive of host States' ability to regulate. And whilst a growing number of investment treaty tribunals, as well as new investment treaties, have to some extent reined in such broad protections, the evolution of key investment protection standards has been marred by inconsistency and uncertainty.

How do host states and foreign investors balance the need for legal stability and regulatory flexibility in the complex world of international investment, against the backdrop of an ever-evolving global economy? This book uncovers unique insights into the delicate balance between legal stability and flexibility. Through in-depth analysis and real-world case studies, Dr. Abdallah Ali unveils the secrets behind stabilization and renegotiation clauses, demystifying their impact on investors, governments, and global trade. With rare access to historical data and illuminating examples, this work is an invaluable resource for legal practitioners, policymakers, and investors navigating the complexities of international investment terrain.

This book provides an ideal introduction to the fundamentals of international investment law and dispute settlement for students, scholars, and practitioners. It combines a systematic analytical study of the texts and principles underlying investment law with a jurisprudential analysis of the case law arising in international tribunals.

Global regulatory standards are emerging from the environmental and health jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, the World Trade Organization, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and investor-state dispute settlement. Most prominent are the three standards of regulatory coherence, due regard for the rights of others, and due diligence in the prevention of harm. These global regulatory standards are a phenomenon of our times, representing a new contribution to the ordering of the relationship between domestic and international law, and a revised conception of sovereignty in an increasingly pluralistic global legal era. However, the legitimacy of the resulting 'standards-enriched' international law remains open to question. International courts and tribunals should not be the only fora in which these standards are elaborated, and many challenges and opportunities lie ahead in the ongoing development of global regulatory standards. Debate over whether regulatory coherence should go beyond reasonableness and rationality requirements and require proportionality stricto sensu in the relationship between regulatory measures and their objectives is central. Due regard, the most novel of the emerging standards, may help protect international law's legitimacy claims in the interim. Meanwhile, all actors should attend to the integration rather than the fragmentation of international law, and to changes in the status of private actors.

International courts and tribunals are increasingly asked to pass judgment on matters that are traditionally considered to fall within the domestic jurisdiction of States. Especially in the fields of human rights, investment, and trade law, international adjudicators commonly evaluate decisions of national authorities that have been made in the course of democratic procedures and public deliberation. A controversial question is whether international adjudicators should review such decisions de novo or show deference to domestic authorities. This book investigates how various international courts and tribunals have responded to this question. In addition to a comparative analysis, the book provides a normative argument, discussing whether different forms of deference are justified in international adjudication. It proposes a distinction between epistemic deference, which is based on the superior capacity of domestic authorities to make factual and technical assessments, and constitutional deference, which is based on the democratic legitimacy of domestic decision-making. The book concludes that epistemic deference is a prudent acknowledgement of the limited expertise of international adjudicators, whereas the case for constitutional deference depends on the relative power of the reviewing court vis-à-vis the domestic legal order.

Uses the focus of environmental disputes to develop a novel comparative analysis of the functions of international courts and tribunals.