The 'Human Nature' of International Investment Law

Abstract

In the context of the ‘fragmentation’ narrative, international law regimes are often perceived as homogeneous, both in terms of the objective they pursue and the people who compose them. Such is the case of international investment law (IIL) that is usually depicted as an investor-oriented setting. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the relationships between IIL and human rights are addressed by mainstream literature as a matter of interaction between two different legal and social settings.

This article proposes a different way of approaching and analyzing these relationships. Instead of conceiving of IIL and human rights as two different and conflicting settings and focusing on how human rights can be incorporated within the IIL regime, it unravels the ‘human nature’ of IIL. To do so, it examines the substantive standards, i.e. the FET and indirect expropriation, and their application as well as the profile of arbitrators and features of investment arbitration.

Keywords: international investment law, human rights, fragmentation, conflicts, publicization, interpretation, argumentation, FET, indirect expropriation, investment arbitration