The United States 2004 Model Bilateral Investment Treaty: an Exercise in the Regressive Development of International Law
Article from: TDM 2 (2006), in Judge Stephen Schwebel on international investment law and investment arbitration
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 ...