The Role of the World Heritage Convention for Foreign Investments and Investment Disputes: An Overlooked Instrument for Preventing Harmful Investment Activities?

Abstract

Investment activities by foreign investors such as mining operations or energy production can threaten natural and cultural World Heritage, which is protected under the World Heritage Convention. As World Heritage sites have been at the heart of various (recent) investment disputes, the question arises as to how obligations under the World Heritage Convention affect investment activities and investment disputes. The article seeks to shed light on this issue by analysing different aspects of the World Heritage Convention in the context of investment law. It starts by exploring how investment tribunals have approached investment disputes involving World Heritage sites and what their decisions imply for the regulation of investment activities in or near World Heritage sites. Subsequently, the article examines which obligations the World Heritage Convention imposes on foreign investors, host states, and investors‘ home states. In the analysis of the home states‘ duties, Article 6(3) of the Convention, which has hitherto received little scholarly attention, is of particular interest. Based on decisions of the World Heritage Committee and doctrinal opinions, the authors interpret said provision and place it in the specific context of investment law. In doing so, they find that a limited duty to regulate exists for home states of investors if they provide financial or non-financial support to a business operation abroad.