Background

The universe of international investment rules continues to grow at a rapid pace, with investment components increasingly added to bilateral and regional preferential trade agreements, either in their own right or as part of the services chapters. The total number of all investment-related agreements (including bilateral investment treaties, double taxation treaties and free trade agreements with investment provisions) approximated 5,500 at the beginning of 2007, growing on average by another three agreements per week. As a result, the current international system of investment ...