The Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard in the International Law of Foreign Investment


Book Description

This text analyses the conventional and customary framework of the fair and equitable treatment clauses commonly found in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and charts how these clauses have become norms of customary international law.




The Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) Standard in International Investment Arbitration


Book Description

This book presents comprehensive information on a range of issues in connection with the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) standard, with a particular focus on arbitral awards against host developing countries, thereby contributing to the available literature in this area of international investment law. It examines in detail the interpretation of the FET standard of key arbitral awards affecting host developing countries, demonstrating the full range of interpretation approaches adopted by the current investment tribunals. At the same time, the book offers valuable practical guidance for counsels/scholars representing host developing countries in investment arbitration, where balancing the competing interests of the foreign investors and the host developing countries in investment disputes poses a complex challenge. The book puts forward the pressing need for a re-conceptualized interpretation of the FET standard in tune with the developmental issues and challenges faced by host developing countries, recognizing these countries’ particular perspectives as an important and relevant aspect of investment disputes (often ignored by the current investment tribunals), while continuing to ensure reasonable protections for foreign investors and therefore serving the needs of the system as whole. The findings presented here will greatly benefit host developing countries engaged in investment arbitration. In addition, the book offers an insightful guide for all researchers whose work involves investment law and investment arbitration issues.




Fair and Equitable Treatment


Book Description

The fair and equitable treatment (‘FET’) standard is a type of protection found in BITs which has become in the last decades one of the most controversial provisions examined by arbitral tribunals. This book first examines the interaction between the ‘minimum standard of treatment’ (MST) and the FET standard and the question why States started referring to the former in their BITs. It also addresses the question whether the FET should be considered as an autonomous standard of protection under BITs. This book also examines the controversial proposition that the FET standard should now be considered as a rule of customary international law. I will show that while the practice of States to include FET clauses in their BITs can be considered as general, widespread and representative, it remains that it is not uniform and consistent enough for the standard to have crystallised into a customary rule. States also lack the necessary opinio juris when including the clause in their BITs.




Fair and Equitable Treatment


Book Description

"In recent years, the concept of fair and equitable treatment has assumed prominence in investment relations between States. While the earliest proposals that made reference to this standard of treatment for investment are contained in various multilateral efforts in the period immediately following World War II, the bulk of the State practice incorporating the standard is to be found in bilateral investment treaties which have become a central feature in international investment relations. In essence, the fair and equitable standard provides a yardstick by which relations between foreign direct investors and Governments of capital-importing countries may be assessed. It also acts as a signal from capital-importing countries, for it indicates, at the very least, a State's willingness to accommodate foreign capital on terms that take into account the interests of the investor in fairness and equity."--Provided by publisher.




The Right of States to Regulate in International Investment Law


Book Description

Due to the ongoing recent expansion of public interest issues worldwide, the state’s right to regulate has been recaptured as a prominent concept in international investment law. The fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard provision in the text of an international investment agreement (IIA) has become a detailed clause clarifying the specific obligations of a state towards an investor under the FET standard. However, striking the right balance between the interests of host states and investors in these new treaty formulations has proved to be challenging. This book greatly clarifies the field by offering the in-depth analysis of the application of the state’s right to regulate in relation to FET standard provisions in IIAs and to decisions by arbitral tribunals in FET cases. Recognising that the role of tribunals is to balance the state’s public interests and the interests of the investor when interpreting and applying the FET standard, the author pursues such seminal issues and topics as the following: the legitimacy of the objective of the state’s measure; obligations and responsibilities of investors towards a host state; the nature and impact of a change to a national regulatory framework; special economic and sociopolitical circumstances in a host state; and due diligence and risk assessment as a condition for the protection of an investor’s legitimate expectations. Multiple IIAs concluded by the OECD Member States, as well by Russia and China between the developing countries, and the prominent investment law cases on the FET standard are examined in detail. The analysis pays particular attention to how investment jurisprudence in FET cases has been reflected in such new IIAs as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), the EU-Vietnam FTA and the EU-Singapore FTA. These case studies demonstrate the evolution of the IIAs’ FET standard provisions and how they balance the application of the FET standard and the state’s right to regulate. Suggestions are provided for drafting formulations of the FET standard that can contribute to achieving such a balance. In the clear light it sheds on the legal conditions under which states may regulate in the public interest and its contribution to the reforms that are currently taking place in the field of international investment law, this book constitutes an exemplary framework to evaluate investment decisions on the FET standard and the right to regulate. It is sure to prove extremely useful for practitioners who work on investment cases, policymakers involved in negotiating and drafting of IIAs, policy advisors of governmental and non-governmental organisations and academics in international investment law.




The Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard


Book Description

Since the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, several arbitral tribunals have rendered awards dealing with claims of breach of Article 1105. Some of these awards have been very controversial and have had a tremendous impact on the development of the concept of fair and equitable treatment (FET) and the evolution of international investment law. Yet, in spite of the fundamental importance of these awards, no comprehensive study had been undertaken to determine the meaning and the content of the FET standard under NAFTA Article 1105. This bookand’s systematic analysis of the provision and its case law fills this analytical gap. Because Article 1105 is in many ways different from typical FET clauses contained within most investment treaties, the author examines the particular parameters under which it must be interpreted. He also analyzes how these specific features have influenced NAFTA tribunalsand’ interpretation of the provision, and how their assessments differ from awards rendered by other tribunals outside NAFTA. Among the issues treated in the course of the analysis are the following: the origin, development, nature and content of the concept of the and‘minimum standard of treatmentand’ and its interaction with the FET standard; the specific parameters under which Article 1105 must be interpreted, including contextual elements such as subsequent agreement and practice between the NAFTA Parties on matters of interpretation; the context in which the Free Trade Commission issued its Note of Interpretation in 2001 and how NAFTA tribunals have applied it; whether or not the concepts of legitimate expectations, transparency, arbitrary conduct, discriminatory conduct, good faith, denial of justice, and due process have been considered by NAFTA tribunals as specific elements of protection to be accorded to investors under Article 1105; the many facets of these elements and the threshold of severity that NAFTA tribunals have required for finding a breach of Article 1105; the interaction between Article 1105 and other NAFTA provisions on national treatment, Most-Favored-Nation treatment, and expropriation; and how NAFTA tribunals have assessed damages for breach of Article 1105. This comprehensive guide to NAFTA case law on Article 1105 is an important contribution to the on-going controversial debate about the scope and content of the FET standard under international law. It will be of great interest to counsel for investors and States as well as to arbitrators, academics and anyone interested in investor-State arbitration.




Fair and Equitable Treatment and the Fabric of General Principles


Book Description

This book moves from the circumstance whereby currently the obligation to provide fair and equitable treatment (FET) to foreign investments is included in the majority of international investment agreements and has proved to be the most invoked standard in investor-State arbitration. Hence, it is no overstatement to describe this standard as the basic norm of international investment law. Yet both its meaning and normative basis continue to be shrouded in ambiguity and, as a consequence, to inspire a considerable number of interpretations by legal writers. The book’s precise aim is to unravel such ambiguity, arguing from the idea that FET has become part of the fabric of general international law, but has done so by means of a source somewhat neglected in legal doctrine. This being the category of general principles peculiar to a certain field of international law, i.e. those principles having their own foundations in the international legal order itself, but which, through the mediation of the judge, end up being shaped according to the features typical of a specific normative field. The book, as well as having a solid theoretical backdrop as its basis, offers a careful and critical analysis of pertinent case law, and will prove useful to both scholars and practitioners. Fulvio Maria Palombino is Professor of International Law at the Law Department of the University of Naples Federico II and a member of the Executive Board of the European Society of International Law.







International Protection of Investments


Book Description

This book outlines the protection standards typically contained in international investment agreements as they are actually applied and interpreted by investment tribunals. It thus provides a basis for analysis, criticism, and stocktaking of the existing system of investment arbitration. It covers all main protection standards, such as expropriation, fair and equitable treatment, full protection and security, the non-discrimination standards of national treatment and MFN, the prohibition of unreasonable and discriminatory measures, umbrella clauses and transfer guarantees. These standards are covered in separate chapters providing an overview of textual variations, explaining the origin of the standards and analysing the main conceptual issues as developed by investment tribunals. Relevant cases with quotations that illustrate how tribunals have relied upon the standards are presented in depth. An extensive bibliography guides the reader to more specific aspects of each investment standard permitting the book's use as a commentary of the main investment protection standards.




Reassertion of Control over the Investment Treaty Regime


Book Description

Driven by public opinion in host states, contracting parties to investment agreements are pursuing many avenues in order to curb a system that is being perceived - correctly or not - as having run out of control. Reassertion of Control over the Investment Treaty Regime is the first book of its kind to examine the many issues of procedure, substantive law, and policy which arise from this trend. From procedural aspects such as frivolous claims mechanisms, the establishment of appeals mechanism or state-state arbitration, to substantive issues such as joint interpretations, treaty termination or detailed definitions of standards of protection, the book identifies and discusses the main means by which states do or may reassert their control over the interpretation and application of investment treaties. Each chapter tackles one of these avenues and evaluates its potential to serve as an instrument in states' reassertion of control.