Handbook

This course aims to provide an overview on central topics of international investment law. It will trace the traditional approach of regulating foreign direct investments in customary international law and then focus on the present state of investor protection through a dense web of more than 2000 bilateral investment protection treaties as well as some multilateral agreements containing investment provisions such as NAFTA, the Energy Charter Treaty and others.

The standards of treatment guaranteed to foreign investors in these treaties as well as under customary international law will be analysed. Equally, the protection against expropriation will merit special attention. The growing case-law of international arbitration tribunals will serve as a background to this analysis.

This course will not only address the issue of substantive standards. It will equally deal with the question of enforcing such standards through various forms of dispute settlement, ranging from domestic litigation, national as well as international insurance schemes to international investment arbitration before ICSID, NAFTA, UNCITRAL or other dispute settlement institutions.

Main Topics

• The sources of international investment law
• Investment agreements
• Expropriation
• Standards of treatment
• Responsibility of the host state and protection by the investor's home state
• Dispute settlement
• ICSID (The Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes)