This chapter charts the rise of treaties as key instruments of foreign investment protection. In this chapter, the term investment treaties refers to bilateral or multilateral treaties that address investment protection exclusively, as well as chapters in free trade agreements that highlight investment protection as one of several trade-related concerns. There are currently more than 3,000 investment treaties in existence, weaving almost every country in the world into a vast, complex web of overlapping treaties. Today, foreign investment that is not subject to investment treaty protection is the exception to the norm. Section 1 situates the emergence of investment treaties in their proper historical, political and economic context. Section 2 discusses the period of rapid growth in the number of investment treaties, the ensuing surge in the invocation of investment treaties by foreign investors against host States and the consequences of the turn to investment treaty protection. Section 3 demonstrates how investment treaties, as well as the regime they fostered, are currently undergoing a period of resistance and change.
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