International Investment Law and History: An Introduction
Stephan W Schill, Christian J Tams and Rainer Hofmann, ‘International Investment Law and History: An Introduction’ in Stephan W Schill, Christian J Tams and Rainer Hofmann (eds), International Investment Law and History (Edward Elgar 2018)
Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2019-16
Amsterdam Center for International Law No. 2019-05
35 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2019
Date Written: June 7, 2019
Abstract
This chapter provides a critical introduction into the state of the art of historical approaches to international investment law. Reviewing the status quo, it traces the use of historical arguments in investor-state dispute settlement and provides an overview over the existing, historically informed scholarship in the field. The chapter then focuses on the blind spots in the historical analysis of international investment law and sketches out how a fuller and more reflected engagement with, and use of, the historical method could benefit the field. To illustrate the potential of historical approaches, the chapter then situates the different contributions to the present book. It concludes by suggesting that historical approaches to international investment law could not only enrich this specialized field of international law, but stimulate, more generally, the interest of international legal historiography in international economic law and the economic foundations of international law.
Keywords: international investment law, history, turn to history, historical methods, objectives of history
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation