This volume is dedicated to the elucidation of rules governing the jurisdiction of international tribunals established pursuant to investment treaties, the admissibility of investment claims presented to them, and the laws applicable to the various legal issues arising out of such claims. The next volume will address the substantive obligations of investment protection that are common to the majority of investment treaties.

The recent exponential growth of claims being prosecuted under investment treaties by investors against states could not have happened without the expansion of the network of investment treaties by states. At first blush this might appear to be paradoxical: why are states actively embracing the inevitability of more international litigation against them? But it is a paradox only if the burden of defending claims eclipses the benefits attained by the states' compliance with these international engagements. Some form of cost-benefit analysis might shed some light on the rationality of the rush to sign investment treaties. It would not, however, reveal the full picture. What about the impact of the treaty upon the domestic rule of law? If regulatory practices in the host state of the foreign investment evolve in the direction of greater transparency and more respect for due process as a result of the discipline imposed by the state's international obligations, then this is surely a tangible benefit that may not be susceptible to precise valuation in economic terms.