This article treats main approaches to the term ‘investment' under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention) and international investment treaties. Discussion of different trends does not only involve a purely...

The question of what constitutes an “investment” under the ICSID Convention, and is thus subject to protection under that treaty, is hotly contested and far from clear. A near-universal consensus has nevertheless emerged as to what does not constitute an “investment”: “ordinary...

The reform option on the Standing Multilateral Mechanism (SMM) currently under discussion at UNCITRAL's Working Group III (WGIII) has raised a number of important, systemic concerns for the procedural reforms of investor-State dispute settlement. This paper first seeks to situate the discussions...

Governments are facing an increasing number of arbitration claims by foreign investors relating to important public policies or seeking substantial damages, and many governments are taking a greater joint interest in how such cases are resolved in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). This...

This paper explores the role that international commercial arbitration plays in facilitating foreign direct investment (FDI). International commercial arbitration is a system of private commercial law that enables firms to more effectively enforce contracts by allowing them to avoid...

This is a summary of two articles I produced in an extended exchange with Susan D. Franck and others in the Yearbook on International Investment Law & Policy. The exchange dealt with the role of empirical methods in testing for possible bias in investment treaty arbitration and with various...