Description

This course provides an introduction to an important field of international economic law: international investment law. When an enterprise invests abroad, it takes economic and political risks. What rules of international law protect foreign investments?
The first aim of the course is to introduce the main features of international investment law as a general system, to understand why it has become so effective, why it is controversial and how it could evolve. Thus, the course starts with an overview of current flows and stocks of international investments and summarises the history and the purposes of international investment law. Treaties (especially bilateral investment treaties) are the main source of international investment law. However, other sources of international law (customary law and general principles of law) play a role, and the interplay of international investment law with national law and EU law also needs to be understood. The settlement of investment disputes, currently mainly based on arbitration, is a specific feature of investment protection, which contributes to its effectiveness.
The course also aims at introducing some crucial issues of bilateral investment treaties and arbitral practice, including the definition of investment, the prohibition of discrimination (especially through most-favoured nation and national treatment clauses), and other substantive standards of protection (especially fair and equitable treatment and the prohibition of unlawful expropriation).