Global Governance and Investment Treaty Arbitration: The Importance of the Argentine Crisis for Future Disputes

Abstract

Foreign direct investments are important catalysts for national development and states have sought to attract investment by ratifying investment treaties that offer guarantees to foreign investors and that allow foreign investors to file an arbitration against a host state directly before an international tribunal. However, investment treaty arbitrations do not act only as a mechanism of dispute settlement; they also have a global governance role. They review the legality of state conduct through their adjudicative powers, in reference to those obligations that are narrowly stipulated in investment treaties. On the other hand, states must protect the most basic interests of those under their jurisdiction, even if to do so contradicts the interests of investors, and, in turn, investors have submitted claims against states through international arbitration whenever their interests have been contradicted. In the following article it will be discussed how the regulatory capacity of states has been considered in investment treaty arbitrations, with particular regard to the arbitrations filed against Argentina in the 2000s.