'We Have Met The Enemy And He Is US!' Is the industrialized North 'Going South' on investor-State arbitration?

Abstract

This article examines the recent trend among some states to denounce the ICSID Convention or terminate or critically review their bilateral investment promotion and protection treaties against the backdrop of the 1970s New International Economic Order (NIEO). After providing an overview of the original NIEO, an idea many considered defeated with the rise of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, the authors explain why the international community should be concerned with the recent emergence of a ‘NEO-NIEO’, led in part by the original movement’s critics. Permanent sovereignty over natural resources, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1803 (XVII) (1962) Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3201 (S-VI) (1974) Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3281 (XXIX) (1974) US Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (2012)