This entry is concerned with the rise and fall of investment treaties and investor-state arbitration after the end of the cold war. It provides a brief history of international investment law after the end of the cold war. Initially this is a story of the growing desirability of a high degree of...

The European Union (EU) has had competence over trade in goods since its inception in 1957. The EU has exercised this external competence through its Common Commercial Policy (CCP). As one of the most dynamic fields of EU external relations, the scope and the nature of the CCP has evolved...

Investment tribunals often profess fidelity to the rules on treaty interpretation contained in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). At first sight, they mention Article 31 and 32 VCLT with reassuring regularity. But first impressions may lead astray. My hypothesis is that many...

The UK has made major contributions to the development of investor-state dispute settlement from 1920-2020. This essay shows that the UK contributed in three ways (1) law-making, both before and after the launch of its investment treaty programme in the early 1970s; (2) dispute settlement –...

This article focuses on fragmentation within international investment law. The problem of fragmentation acquires real significance when investor-State tribunals exceed the scope of their jurisdiction, when they reach conflicting outcomes on the merits of similar disputes, or when the relevant...