Bilateral and regional investment agreements have proliferated in the last decade and new ones are still being negotiated. Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) clauses link investment agreements by ensuring that the parties to one treaty provide treatment no less favourable than the treatment they provide...

It is a well recognised rule in international law that the property of aliens cannot be taken, whether for public purposes or not, without adequate compensation. Two decades ago, the disputes before the courts and the discussions in academic literature focused mainly on the standard of...

The obligation to provide “fair and equitable treatment” is often stated, together with other standards, as part of the protection due to foreign direct investment by host countries. It is an “absolute”, “non-contingent” standard of treatment, i.e. a standard that states the...

This publication reviews measures taken to support investment policy and governance reforms in Iraq. It finds that Iraqi parliamentary elections, held without major security incidents in March 2010, are the latest in a series of indicators suggesting that the country may be achieving greater...

The present document surveys the issues related to transparency and third party participation in investor-state dispute settlement procedures. Section I examines the way in which the current rules apply to these issues. Section II describes the steps taken to improve the transparency of the...