Introduction

Customary international law in respect of the treatment and taking of foreign investment before the era of the bilateral investment treaty customarily was contentious. Capital-exporting States generally maintained that host States were bound under international law to treat foreign investment at least in accordance with the "minimum standard of international law"; and where the host State expropriated foreign property, it could lawfully do so only for a public purpose, without discrimination against foreign interests, and upon payment of prompt, adequate and effective ...