Law Commons^™

The system of international investment arbitration is established by hundreds of investment treaties that have the following key features: 1. States authorize foreign investors (read multinational enterprises) to make and enforce international claims for damages against states in disputes arising from the state’s exercise of public authority, without those claims being filtered by the investor’s home state or by an international organization; 2. States are subjected to broadly-worded international standards that apply to a wide range of governmental activity, affording arbitration tribunals broad discretion to award damages to investors and thus make decisions about the cost of government, with limited …