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.

This volume celebrates the first fifty years of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) by presenting the landmark cases that have been decided under its auspices. These cases have addressed every aspect of investment disputes: jurisdictional thresholds; the substantive obligations found in investment treaties, contracts, and legislation; questions of general international law; and a number of novel procedural issues. Each chapter, written by an expert on the chapter’s particular focus, looks at an international investment law topic through the lens of one or more of these leading cases, analyzing what the case held, how it has been applied, and its overall significance to the development of international investment law. These topics include: - applicable law; - res judicata in investor-State arbitration; - notion of investment; - investor nationality; - consent to arbitration; - substantive standards of treatment; - consequences of corruption in investor-State arbitration; - State defenses - counter-claims; - assessment of damages and cost considerations; - ICSID Arbitration Rule 41(5) objections; - mass claims, consolidation and parallel proceedings; - provisional measures; - arbitrator challenges; - transparency and amicus curiae; and - annulment. Because the law of international investment continues to grow in importance in an ever globalizing world, this book is more than a fitting way to mark the past fifty years and to welcome the next fifty years of development. It will prove both educational for practitioners new to the field and informative for seasoned investment lawyers. Moreover, the book itself is a landmark that will be of great value to professionals, scholars and students interested in international investment law.

The book focuses on the substantive protections accorded to investors and investments and on the variations among jurisdictions. Among the many specific issues and topics that arise in the course of the discussion are the following: - problems of transparency and conflict of interest; - the recent growth in IIAs between and among developing nations; - the effect of new model bilateral investment treaties (BITs); - the ability of non-disputing parties to participate in investor-state arbitration; - theories of the interaction of foreign direct investment (FDI) and BITs; - investor-state arbitration as an evasion of public regulatory authority; - the role of investment funds in international investment; - 'fork in the road' provisions; and - institutional versus ad hoc arbitration. International business and other investors will greatly appreciate the in-depth information and insightful guidance in this solidly useful book. It will also be welcomed by jurists and students as a significant milestone in the development of principles in a quickly growing field of practice that is still plagued with inconsistencies.

Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy, and Interpretation organizes, summarizes and comments upon the arbitral awards interpreting and applying BIT provisions. Policymakers and practitioners will find a thorough introduction to the operation of the BITs, including the principal arguments and case authorities on both sides of the major issues in international investment law. The book is intended to be a single-volume reference covering every important development in the 50 years of BIT programs worldwide, from 1959 until 2009. Author Kenneth Vandevelde argues that the primary purpose of the BITs is to promote the application of the rule of law to foreign investment, while a secondary purpose is to create a liberal investment regime. He further argues that BITs are based on six core principles: reasonableness, security, nondiscrimination, access, transparency and due process. The book explains each of these principles and analyzes the major BIT provisions based on them. Vandevelde addresses the host of complex questions that BITs engender: Do bilateral investment treaties attract foreign investment or otherwise contribute to economic development? Do BITs limit host state regulatory discretion too much? Why should countries continue to conclude BITs? What is meant by BIT guarantees of "fair and equitable treatment" and "full protection and security"? What is the scope of the BIT provision for most-favored-nation treatment? The book's expert analysis of these questions makes it useful to policy makers in the area of international economic relations, attorneys representing multinational companies, and anyone interested in the process of economic globalization.

The First Bilateral Investment Treaties is the first and only history of the U.S. postwar Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation (FCN) treaty program, and focuses on the investment-related provisions of those treaties. The 22 U.S. postwar FCN treaties were the first bilateral investment treaties ever concluded, and nearly all of the core provisions in the modern network of more than 3000 international investment agreements worldwide trace their origin to these FCN treaties. This book explains the original understanding of the language of this vast network of agreements which have been and continue to be the subject of hundreds of international arbitrations and billions of dollars in claims. It is based on a review of some 32,000 pages of negotiating history housed in the National Archives. This book demonstrates that the investment provisions were founded on the New Deal liberalism of the Roosevelt-Truman administrations and were intended to acquire for U.S. companies investing abroad the same protections that foreign investors already received in the United States under the U.S. Constitution. It chronicles the failed U.S. attempt to obtain protection for investment through the proposed International Trade Organization (ITO), providing the first and only history of the investment-related provisions in the ITO Charter. It then shows how the FCN treaties, which dated back to 1776 and originally concerned with establishing trade and maritime relations, were re-conceptualized as investment treaties to provide investment protection bilaterally. This book is also a work of diplomatic history, offering an account of the negotiating history of each of the 22 treaties and describing U.S. negotiating policy and strategy.

An examination of the origins of international investment law and their continued resonance in the twenty-first century.