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 the increased scope for tension between obligations under investment treaties, particularly fair and equitable treatment, and the interpretation of national patent law by domestic courts. Precisely because investment treaties were created to protect investors from...

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...

Foreign shareholders can avail themselves of legal protection under three different legal regimes: diplomatic protection, international investment law and international human rights law. Adopting a historic and comparative approach, this article tracks the faded role of diplomatic protection for...