Introduction

This essay, by Prof. José E. Alvarez, the Hamilton Fish Professor of Law & Diplomacy, Columbia Law School, and past President of the American Society of International Law, surveys the changes to the U.S. Model BIT from 1984 to the present and compares these to other BIT programs such as China's. It contends that the U.S. BIT program has changed its ideology, along with its object and purpose, and draws larger lessons from the fact that BITs, and not only their interpretations through the arbitration process, evolve over time. Appended to the essay is a comparison of ...