International Economic Law

Mit den Tags ‘BIT’ versehene Einträge

Human Rights Issues Implicated in BITs Disputes

Mai 31, 2008 · Kommentar schreiben

Wie bisher gesehen wurde sind BITs einerseits als eine Methode der Problemlösung zu verstehen aber andererseits lässt sich als Erzeuger anderer Probleme kritisieren. Die Probleme der Menschenrechte bei BITs Disputes stelle ich jetzt vor.

Folgender Text ist die kleine Einführung in das Thema.

While there has been some work undertaken to explore the relationship between the multilateral trading system and human rights, there have been fewer inquiries into the relationship between the international governance frameworks for investment and human rights. Doubtless, this owes a great deal to the fact that, to the extent investment is governed by international rules; this is primarily through less-visible bilateral and regional treaties. It likely also owes to the fact that investment treaty dispute settlement is dispersed, ad-hoc and often opaque. As such, even where investor arbitrations might harbour implications for human rights, these cases might not necessarily come to public notice. Clearly, there is a need for immediate reform of the dispute settlement processes, so that cases may not proceed without publicity.

For purpose of analysis, two general scenarios where there is an interface between investment treaty arbitration and human rights can be envisioned.

The first of these involves those situations where the host state’s treatment of an investor can be argued to have been in furtherance of certain international human rights commitments of the host state. This might include ordinary exercises of state authority (for example under criminal law) to sanction foreign investors which are alleged to have violated the human rights of local citizens. It might also include situations where host states act proactively so as to further human rights, rather than in a merely reactive manner (i.e. in response to investor wrong-doing).

A second and very different scenario where investment treaty arbitration and human rights may intersect is in those situations where both parties to an investment dispute appear to have been complicit (either by their actions or their omissions) in allowing human rights violations to be perpetrated by the state or by corporate actors (with the blessing or acquiescence of the state). In this scenario, neither party is claiming that its actions were pursuant to international human rights obligations. While compliance, or otherwise, with these human rights norms may be adjudicated in other bodies, it is unclear what role an investor’s human rights record will play in the substantive deliberations of an investment treaty arbitration.

ausführlich : www.iisd.org

Kategorien: Investment Protection · human rights
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Notwendigkeit der BITs

Mai 11, 2008 · 4 Kommentare

Mit der Globalisierung erweitert sich die Auswirkung der internationalen Unternehmen, allerdings sind die Unternehmen kein völkerrechtliches Subjekt, damit sind sie weder an das Völkergewohnheitsrecht noch an die internationalen Verträge bindend.

Um diese Einschränkungen zu überwinden schließen die Staaten BITs (bilateral investment treaty/ ein anderes Word FDI : Foreign direct investment) ab, damit die Staaten für die Aktivitäten der jeweiligen Unternehmen Verantwortung nehmen. Natürlich sind diese BITs nicht ausreichend die menschenrechtlichen Probleme zu lösen. Nicht selten genießen die Prozesse über solche Fälle lacuene in law (wie Gesetzeslücke). Also sind die Bemühungen um diese Problematik notwendig.

Hinweis für BIT:

A Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) is an agreement establishing the terms and conditions for private investment by nationals and companies of one state in the state of the other. This type of investment is called Foreign direct investment (FDI). BITs are established through trade pacts.

Most BITs grant investments made by an investor of one Contracting State in the territory of the other a number of guarantees, which typically include fair and equitable treatment, protection from expropriation, free transfer of means and full protection and security. The distinctive feature of many BITs is that they allow for an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, whereby an investor whose rights under the BIT have been violated could have recourse to international arbitration, often under the auspices of the ICSID (International Center for the Resolution of Investment Disputes), rather than suing the host State in its own courts.

There are currently more that 2500 BITs in force, involving most countries in the world. Influential capital exporting states usually negotiate BITs on the basis of their own „model“ texts (such as the US model BIT).

Kategorien: Investment Protection · Transnational Corporations
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