A Study On Investment Treatment Provision In Bilateral Investment Treaties

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), which playing an importantrole as the source of law in the International Investment Law, are thehinges of relating domestic law and international law of contractingparties. As the gist for deciding the rights and obligations of contractingparties, investment treatment is the origin for evaluating and also the keyproblem, and therefore it is focused by each country in negotiation ofconcluding Bilateral Investment Treaty. Adopting a comparing approachand a logically historical perspective, this paper makes a study of theinvestment treatment provision in BITs systematically andcomprehensively.Beginning with the definition of the investment treatment provisionand the main body applying it, this paper focuses on the generaltreatment of foreign investor in BITs in a board sense. The generaltreatment provision, which is fundamental in the whole treaty, bearsgreat significance for both the host country and the mother countries ofinvestor in attracting foreign investments as well as protecting domesticindustries. Influenced by political and economic factors contemporarily,the main capital-import/export countries advanced the systems as well ascontents of the investment treatment provision in BITs steadily: FCNs,in which investment treatment is dispersed, evolved to be Europeanmodel BIT with MFN treatment dominant, or the high liberalizationcharacteristic of US model BIT; and developed to be the US 2004 modelBIT which absorbed international customary law widely. There are someproblems in the existing Chinese investment treatment provisions, forexample: some items concerning investment treatment are confusing, investors' treatments are different depending on their countries, andtreatment system is impacted by the national treatment. Based on othercountries' experiences, this paper tries to put forward its own opinion onhow to improve the existing Chinese investment treatment provisions.Key Words: Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), Most-Favored-NationTreatment, National Treatment, Fair and Equitable Treatment,Non-discrimination Treatment...