The Right to Regulate in International Investment Law and the Law of State Responsibility: A Hohfeldian Approach

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalampos Giannakopoulos
Keyword(s):  
International Investment ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right

scholarly journals Private Actors, Public Goods and Responsibility for the Right to Water in International Investment Law: An Analysis of Urbaser v. Argentina

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Edward Guntrip
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Water Supply Services

International investment law balances public and private interests within the broader framework of international law. Consequently, when water supply services, which constitute a public good, are privatized and operated by foreign investors, questions arise regarding whether foreign investors could be held responsible for the right to water under international law. This article considers how the tribunal in Urbaser v. Argentina allocated responsibility for compliance with the right to water between the host State and the foreign investor when resolving a dispute over privatized water services. It highlights how the tribunal in Urbaser v. Argentina supports different understandings of public and private based on whether the human rights obligation is framed in terms of the duty to respect or protect. The article argues that the tribunal’s rationale overcomplicates the process of allocating responsibility for violations of the human right to water when water supply services have been privatized.

The Effects of Umbrella Clauses: Their Relevance in Interpretation and in Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-594
Author(s):  
Alperen Afşin Gözlügöl
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The Law

Abstract Umbrella clauses have sparked one of the great debates in international investment law as regards their proper construction. This article argues that a particular line of reasoning and interpretation appears to be unduly focusing on the effects of such clauses in the process of construing them. In other words, what seems to occur in the interpretation of umbrella clauses is that some tribunals, frightened by the far-reaching consequences, construe such clauses more narrowly. I call this phenomenon ‘adverse effects analysis’ and demonstrate that it is inconsistent with the proper construction of umbrella clauses in accordance with the rules of interpretation in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). In this course, the effects of umbrella clauses in practice are also put forward along with an analysis of them under ‘manifest absurdity or unreasonableness test’ pursuant to Article 32(b) of VCLT.

scholarly journals The Creation of Elusive Investor Responsibility

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 10-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Ho
Keyword(s):  
International Investment ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Investor Behavior ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
The Status ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Accountability Gap

The issue of investor responsibility reveals a stubborn bias within international investment law. That law addresses mistreatment by host states of foreign investors but consistently fails to address investor misconduct in host states. The traditional emphasis on state responsibility in this context has allowed abusive, pollutive, and corrupt investor behavior to thrive. International investment law is the current object of scrutiny, criticism, and reform in large part because many see it as overprotecting investors. However, scholars and reformers have focused on state responsibility, tinkering with the legal and institutional conditions that determine the international wrongfulness of state conduct. Unless and until investor responsibility is integrated into international investment law reform, the overprotection of investors owing to an accountability gap will continue to undermine its legitimacy. This essay posits that the first step to integration is understanding why investor responsibility scrabbles to find purchase in international investment law. I argue that elusive investor responsibility was created by omission, with injurious consequences that highlight the need to alter, rather than accept, the status quo.

Der eigentumsrechtliche Wertschutz von Anteilsrechten

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörn Griebel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
International Investment ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
German Constitutional Law

Property protection is provided by national law as well as international law. The study seeks for an explanation regarding the divergent approaches to the protection of shareholders in cases of reflective loss provided for in German constitutional law and various fields of public international law. This is done by way of a comparison of the German approach with those found in the law of aliens, in the European Convention on Human Rights and under international investment law. This results in the finding that approaches of international law partly fail to establish the necessary bonds to recognized concepts of national law.

scholarly journals Moral Damages as an ‘Exceptional’ Remedy in International Investment Law – Re-Connecting Practice with General International Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 937-968
Author(s):  
Robert Christoph Stendel
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Investment ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Inter State

Moral damages under international investment law have been extensively addressed in the literature. Notoriously, arbitral tribunals have subjected any claim for moral damages to a requirement unknown to general international law, that is exceptional circumstances. This practice is widely criticised in the field mainly due to the seeming inconsistency with general international law. This article challenges this view by arguing that a deviation from general international law does not – in and of itself – suffice to discard the tribunals’ approach. This argument is based on the insight that general international law only deals with inter-State responsibility and is, thus, open to deviations from general international law in case of State responsibility vis-à-vis the individual. On that basis, the article explores possible legal bases for exceptional circumstances in international law. While it discards the idea that such a requirement for awarding moral damages is implicit in prior inter-State cases, the article rather argues that the arbitral practice witnesses the emergence of a new rule of customary international law applicable to the responsibility of a State vis-à-vis the individual. Thereby, the article seeks to contribute to the wider debate on the content and contours of State responsibility for claims of the individual.

scholarly journals Green Shoots in a Barren World: Recent Developments in International Investment Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-471
Author(s):  
Jason Rudall
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
International Investment ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Good Investment ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
The Right ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThis article begins from the observation that there have been a number of developments in international investment law-making and the jurisprudence of investor-state dispute settlement tribunals involving the protection of the environment and human rights. As for law-making, this article explores the evolving substance of international investment agreements as well as regulatory developments in the area of business and human rights that are of relevance to the international investment law framework. The article then turns to consider the emergence of human rights and environmental issues in the recent jurisprudence of investment tribunals and appraises how such issues have been dealt with—both in procedural and substantive terms—by arbitral tribunals. Finally, it questions whether investment tribunals are appropriate venues for the adjudication of non-investment matters like environmental and human rights issues, and highlights best practices that could be adopted by future tribunals. Overall, the article concludes that the piecemeal approach adopted to date provides a step in the right direction but is ultimately inadequate given the multiple challenges that our planet currently faces. Rather, a more ambitious agenda that is concerned with promoting good investment, as opposed to mitigating bad practices, should be pursued.

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