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...

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...

Since the beginning of the decade, international arbitral tribunals have struggled unsuccessfully to define the obligation of “fair and equitable treatment” required by the vast majority of the world's 2,600 bilateral investment treaties (BITs). Although by the end of 2008 more than fifty...

These are Chapters One and Three of U.S. International Investment Agreements, published by Oxford University Press in 2009. The book presents a comprehensive analysis of the first 30 years of the current U.S. investment treaty program, including both bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free...