The provisions of contemporary international investment agreements trace their origins to the U.S. postwar friendship, commerce and navigation treaties, which were rooted in the liberalism of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Their negotiating history demonstrates that the original understanding of...

These are Chapters Seven and Nine of Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy, and Interpretation, published by Oxford University Press in 2010. The book analyzes the key provisions of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), explaining the structure and policy of each provision, tracing the...

These are Chapters One and Five of The First Bilateral Investment Treaties: U.S. Postwar Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation Treaties, published by Oxford University Press in May 2017. Based on a review of 32,000 pages of negotiating history housed in the National Archives (as well as thousands...

One of the most remarkable phenomena in international law during the past fifteen years has been the extraordinary increase in the number of agreements concluded relating to the protection or liberalization of foreign investment. More than 2500 such agreements now exist, with the great majority...