Regulating Sovereign Wealth Funds Through Contract

Abstract

This Article begins by presenting the need for further investment in infrastructure and by explaining why sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) could help. It describes certain obstacles to realizing this goal, notably the lack of effective, specific regulation of SWFs. It then proposes a potential solution to this problem: host states and SWFs could enter into agreements providing that SWFs will abide by certain obligations and that any disputes will be submitted to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for settlement by arbitration. After describing the legal details of this proposal, this Article identifies and evaluates certain limitations and potential problems with it.

Keywords: sovereign wealth funds, infrastructure investment, investment arbitration, ICSID