International Treaty-Making to Impose Disciplines on Governments in favour of Foreign infrastructure investors: Does it work?
Bilateral investment treaties have been used, initiated by Germany in 1959 and followed by most industrialised countries and now many developing countries, to enhance the protection of their own investors abroad. Their modern form has contributed significantly to investment protection in modern multilateral treaties. The question is: Do they work? Do they contribute in a meaningful way to their underlying objectives – to protect investment – in particular new forms of political risk for infrastructure projects and thereby promote foreign investment? This paper will first review generic issues of such treaties (bi-/multilateral) and related non-treaty instruments and then specific disciplines contained in such treaties as they relate to foreign investors in infrastructure investment. Surprisingly, in view of the by now probably about 1500 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and several major regional and multilateral treaties (NAFTA, Energy Charter Treaty, Mercosur Investment Protocol)
Related Questions
- International Treaty-Making to Impose Disciplines on Governments in favour of Foreign infrastructure investors: Does it work?
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