This text analyses the conventional and customary framework of the fair and equitable treatment clauses commonly found in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and charts how these clauses have become norms of customary international law.

This book presents comprehensive information on a range of issues in connection with the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) standard, with a particular focus on arbitral awards against host developing countries, thereby contributing to the available literature in this area of international investment law. It examines in detail the interpretation of the FET standard of key arbitral awards affecting host developing countries, demonstrating the full range of interpretation approaches adopted by the current investment tribunals. At the same time, the book offers valuable practical guidance for counsels/scholars representing host developing countries in investment arbitration, where balancing the competing interests of the foreign investors and the host developing countries in investment disputes poses a complex challenge. The book puts forward the pressing need for a re-conceptualized interpretation of the FET standard in tune with the developmental issues and challenges faced by host developing countries, recognizing these countries’ particular perspectives as an important and relevant aspect of investment disputes (often ignored by the current investment tribunals), while continuing to ensure reasonable protections for foreign investors and therefore serving the needs of the system as whole. The findings presented here will greatly benefit host developing countries engaged in investment arbitration. In addition, the book offers an insightful guide for all researchers whose work involves investment law and investment arbitration issues.

"In recent years, the concept of fair and equitable treatment has assumed prominence in investment relations between States. While the earliest proposals that made reference to this standard of treatment for investment are contained in various multilateral efforts in the period immediately following World War II, the bulk of the State practice incorporating the standard is to be found in bilateral investment treaties which have become a central feature in international investment relations. In essence, the fair and equitable standard provides a yardstick by which relations between foreign direct investors and Governments of capital-importing countries may be assessed. It also acts as a signal from capital-importing countries, for it indicates, at the very least, a State's willingness to accommodate foreign capital on terms that take into account the interests of the investor in fairness and equity."--Provided by publisher.

Investment protection treaties generally include, in one form or another, the obligation to treat investments fairly and equitably. This book examines the relationship between this obligation and the minimum standard that can be found in customary international law, tracing the history of both concepts, their differences and similarities.

This book examines the interaction between the concept of the ‘minimum standard of treatment’ under custom and the fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard found in the vast majority of BITs. It also analyses whether the FET standard should be considered as a rule of customary international law.

This book looks at fair and equitable treatment as a key standard of international investment law.

Since the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, several arbitral tribunals have rendered awards dealing with claims of breach of Article 1105. Some of these awards have been very controversial and have had a tremendous impact on the development of the concept of fair and equitable treatment (FET) and the evolution of international investment law. Yet, in spite of the fundamental importance of these awards, no comprehensive study had been undertaken to determine the meaning and the content of the FET standard under NAFTA Article 1105. This bookand’s systematic analysis of the provision and its case law fills this analytical gap. Because Article 1105 is in many ways different from typical FET clauses contained within most investment treaties, the author examines the particular parameters under which it must be interpreted. He also analyzes how these specific features have influenced NAFTA tribunalsand’ interpretation of the provision, and how their assessments differ from awards rendered by other tribunals outside NAFTA. Among the issues treated in the course of the analysis are the following: the origin, development, nature and content of the concept of the and‘minimum standard of treatmentand’ and its interaction with the FET standard; the specific parameters under which Article 1105 must be interpreted, including contextual elements such as subsequent agreement and practice between the NAFTA Parties on matters of interpretation; the context in which the Free Trade Commission issued its Note of Interpretation in 2001 and how NAFTA tribunals have applied it; whether or not the concepts of legitimate expectations, transparency, arbitrary conduct, discriminatory conduct, good faith, denial of justice, and due process have been considered by NAFTA tribunals as specific elements of protection to be accorded to investors under Article 1105; the many facets of these elements and the threshold of severity that NAFTA tribunals have required for finding a breach of Article 1105; the interaction between Article 1105 and other NAFTA provisions on national treatment, Most-Favored-Nation treatment, and expropriation; and how NAFTA tribunals have assessed damages for breach of Article 1105. This comprehensive guide to NAFTA case law on Article 1105 is an important contribution to the on-going controversial debate about the scope and content of the FET standard under international law. It will be of great interest to counsel for investors and States as well as to arbitrators, academics and anyone interested in investor-State arbitration.