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The Sovereign Right To Tax: How Bilateral Investment Treaties Threaten Sovereignty, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Bilateral Investment Treaties, ("BITs"), are both a response to and likely at least partly responsible for the significant increase in international investments in the last fifty years. BITs provide potential private investors government assurances regarding a variety of factors relevant to their investments. Among these assurances, BITs regularly address the tax authority that the host government has with regard to the foreign investor, often protecting that foreign private investor against changes to the host country's tax system. If an investor believes the host country has violated the terms of the BIT, that investor can bring a claim against the country …