An Economic Analysis Of Bilateral Investment Treaties

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) are an important instrument for the protection of foreign direct investment (FDI). However, compared to international trade law, international investment law has so far received only little research attention from an economic point of view. By applying a law and economics approach, Jan Peter Sasse provides a systematic analysis of the way BITs function. He explains why BITs are more than just a signal, how they relate to institutional competition as well as to institutional quality and why transparency in international investment arbitration is hard to achieve and may even be detrimental.

This book seeks to determine the level of substantive protection that investment treaties should provide to foreign investment.

Investment treaties are some of the most controversial but least understood instruments of global economic governance. Public interest in international investment arbitration is growing and some developed and developing countries are beginning to revisit their investment treaty policies. The Political Economy of the Investment Treaty Regime synthesises and advances the growing literature on this subject by integrating legal, economic, and political perspectives. Based on an analysis of the substantive and procedural rights conferred by investment treaties, it asks four basic questions. What are the costs and benefits of investment treaties for investors, states, and other stakeholders? Why did developed and developing countries sign the treaties? Why should private arbitrators be allowed to review public regulations passed by states? And what is the relationship between the investment treaty regime and the broader regime complex that governs international investment? Through a concise, but comprehensive, analysis, this book fills in some of the many "blind spots" of academics from different disciplines, and is the first port of call for lawyers, investors, policy-makers, and stakeholders trying to make sense of these critical instruments governing investor-state relations.

Over the past twenty years, foreign direct investments have spurred widespread liberalization of the foreign direct investment (FDI) regulatory framework. By opening up to foreign investors and encouraging FDI, which could result in increased capital and market access, many countries have improved the operational conditions for foreign affiliates and strengthened standards of treatment and protection. By assuring investors that their investment will be legally protected with closed bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and double taxation treaties (DTTs), this in turn creates greater interest in FDI.

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 presents the reflections of a group of researchers interested in assessing whether the law governing the promotion and protection of foreign investment reflects sound public policy. Whether it is the lack of "checks and balances" on investor rights or more broadly the lack of balance between public rights and private interests, the time is ripe for an in-depth discussions of current challenges facing the international investment law regime. Through a survey of the evolution in IIA treaty-making and an evaluation from different perspectives, the authors take stock of developments in international investment law and analyze potential solutions to some of the criticisms that plague IIAs. The book takes a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, with expert analysis from legal, political and economic scholars. The first part of the book traces the evolution of IIA treaty-making whilst the other three parts are organised around the concepts of efficiency, legitimacy and sustainability. Each contributor analyzes one or more issues related to substance, treaty negotiation, or dispute resolution, with the ultimate aim of improving IIA treaty-making in these respects. Improving International Investment Agreements will be of particular interest to students and academics in the fields of International Investment Law, International Trade Law, Business and Economics.

This book presents original research that examines the growth of international investment agreements as a means to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and considers how this affects the ability of capital-importing countries to pursue their development goals. The hope of countries signing such treaties is that foreign capital will accelerate transfers of technologies, create employment, and benefit the local economy through various types of linkages. But do international investment agreements in fact succeed in attracting foreign direct investment? And if so, are the sovereignty costs involved worth paying? In particular, are these costs such that they risk undermining the very purpose of attracting investors, which is to promote human development in the host country? This book uses both economic and legal analysis to answer these questions that have become central to discussions on the impact of economic globalization on human rights and human development. It explains the dangers of developing countries being tempted to 'signal' their willingness to attract investors by providing far-reaching protections to investors' rights that would annul, or at least seriously diminish, the benefits they have a right to expect from the arrival of FDI. It examines a variety of tools that could be used, by capital-exporting countries and by capital-importing countries alike, to ensure that FDI works for development, and that international investment agreements contribute to that end. This uniquely interdisciplinary study, located at the intersection of development economics, international investment law, and international human rights is written in an accessible language, and should attract the attention of anyone who cares about the role of private investment in supporting the efforts of poor countries to climb up the development ladder.

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.