Study On Definition Of Investment In International Investment Law

Almost all the investment treaties conclude the definition of investment clause, which is used to define scope of the treaty,but it differs greatly in various times, wholly speaking,its coverage is widely defined.Lately,there are a series of arbitral cases regarding the definition of investment clause in ICSID and NAFTA.Although tribunals of these cases adopted dramatically different approaches and ways in the interpretation of definition of investment clause,they often came to the same conclusion,that is,approved there was an investment between the claimant and respondent.When deciding such cases,tribunals even enlarge the coverage of definition ruled in investment treaties to such an extent that go beyond the parties' intent.Such practices in international tribunals have invoked closer attention of the academic community and states.However,there is not enough theoretical research about the definition of investment clause now.Some BITs which China has concluded with other foreign countries also include definition of investment clause,the ambiguity and widely defined way will make China be confronted with the high risk in the settlement of the investor-state conflicts.This thesis analyze the definition clause in international treaties and tribunal practice, to provide an overall future direction of definition clause,in the end gives some suggestions to the practice of China's BITs.The thesis consists of:the introduction,four chapters,and the epilogue.Chapter 1 introduces the development of definition of investment clause and the reasons for such development,compares different definitions,and predicts its future trend.Chapter 2 analyses decisions made by ICSID tribunals in the late decade, illustrates the trend in tribunal practices which is to widen the coverage of investment,and choose some cases to explain the trend more clearly. Chapter 3 choose some arguable issues in current international investment law, tries to make comments on them.Chapter 4 focuses on the current definitions in China's international treaties and the potential risk,and puts forward a few of suggestion.