The strengths of international investment law – above all, a strong focus on investor interests and an effective adjudication and enforcement system – also entail its weaknesses: it runs the danger of impeding or even sanctioning the host states' legitimate regulatory interests and ignoring other fields of public international law. How does it cope with public interest concerns such as human rights, the environment or the fight against corruption? At the heart of this book lies a fresh approach towards a general theory of such global public interest considerations in the investment realm. Delineating how and why those considerations matter, and why the current system does not accommodate them properly, Andreas Kulick fleshes out general principles and customary international law as defences the host state may raise against alleged investor rights infringements and promotes proportionality as the appropriate balancing mechanism.
• Outlines a clear doctrinal structure which serves practical implementation and provides a basis for further scholarly discussions • Suggests factors to be taken into account when balancing competing interests and proposes procedural mechanisms to prevent abuses of public interest concerns by the host state • Guides reader in how to use certain arguments or counter them, and provides arbitrators with a mechanism capable of halting inappropriate and unfounded public interest claims by the host state
Contents
1. Introduction; Part I. Towards the Global Public Interest Theory: 2. The 'internationalization' of international investment law; 3. Considering current approaches dealing with public interest considerations in the investment regime; 4. The Global Public Interest theory; 5. How to balance the conflicting interests: proportionality analysis; Part II. Global Public Interest in International Investment Case Law: 6. International investment law and the environment; 7. Human rights and investment – friends or foes?; 8. Corruption and other irregularities; 9. Concluding remarks.
Review
'The distinguishing feature of this contribution, making it both original and valuable, is the different perspective adopted in conceptualising what modern investment law should be like. Unlike most scholarly writings in the area, focusing their analysis on the classical divide between investor and State interests in investment law and arbitration, this study tries to find a model for striking the balance between the interests of the public and those of the individual.' Rumiana Yotova, British Yearbook of International Law
Printer friendly version