ABSTRACT

The network of international investment agreements (IIAs) sees a rapid expansion in the last three decades. With it also the number of international investor-State disputes (ISDS), where foreign investors allege governments of breaches of IIAs, increases sharply also in Balkan, post-Soviet Union and Near and Middle East (BSNME) countries. These disputes are frequently seen to negatively interfere with the national sovereignty of host governments to enact regulation in the public interest, especially in times when regulatory interventions are necessary from a social welfare viewpoint. Against this background, in this paper we appraise the current state of ISDS in BSNME countries: Are BSNME countries prime targets of foreign investors’ arbitral claims? Which economic sectors are targeted by investors? What is the outcome of the arbitral councils’ deliberations? What can we infer from the experience of BSNME countries with ISDS about the future role of IIAs for these countries? We conclude that further improvements in governance are key factors in the attempt to optimize the trade-off between attraction of foreign investment via the ratification of IIAs and national sovereignty in policy making.

摘要

在过去的三十年中，国际投资协定（IIA）网络得到了迅速发展。与此相关的是，在巴尔干，后苏联以及近东和中东（BSNME）国家，外国投资者指称政府违反了国际投资协定，国际投资者与国家之间的争端（ISDS）的数量也急剧增加。人们经常认为这些争端会对东道国政府的国家主权产生不利影响，以出于公共利益的目的制定法规，特别是在从社会福利的角度出发需要采取法规干预措施的时候。在此背景下，本文评估了BSNME国家的ISDS现状：BSNME国家是外国投资者仲裁请求的主要目标吗？投资者将哪些经济领域作为目标？仲裁委员会的审议结果如何？从具有ISDS的BSNME国家的经验中，我们可以推断出IIA在这些国家中的未来作用？我们得出的结论是，治理的进一步改善是试图通过批准国际投资协定来吸引外国投资与政策制定中的国家主权之间取得最佳平衡的关键因素。