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International Investment Law, Julian Davis Mortenson

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Since the middle of the twentieth century, the field of international investment protection has gone through a period of more or less continuous expansion. From a single bilateral investment treaty (‘BIT’) signed between Germany and Pakistan in November 1959, international investment law has seen the proliferation of some 3,200 investment treaties governing the treatment of foreign investors by the host States where they do business.

As a historical matter, the substantive elements of modern investment law emerged from a loose network of customary international law protections that pre-existed the treaties now dominating the regime. Customary international law had long required …