Investment Law, Environment and Climate Change

Traditionally, investment protection instruments focused on protecting foreign investors and their investments in the host state. The range of protection includes substantive protections ensuring that the foreign investor receives treatment equal to national investors and treatment no less than what other foreign investors would receive. Other examples of substantive protection include the prohibition of unlawful expropriation, full protection and security, as well as fair and equitable treatment. While the underlying goal of the host states in concluding instruments of investment protection was to attract foreign investors and thereby increase their economic development, over time, the balance between the host state and its right to regulate in the public interest collided with the standards of protection.