Abstract

The fair and equitable treatment has long been accorded by States to their foreign investors as one of the fundamental obligations under international investment regime. It is an absolute treatment and yet the vaguest standard under bilateral investment treaties ("BITs") and most frequently-used treaty standard invoked by investors in their claims. It is often used as a back-up claim against the States while the investors are unable to achieve the threshold of other obligations, such as indirect expropriation. Given these circumstances, in recent treaty practice, some States like the ...