Analysis Of The Definition Of "Investor" In ICSID Investor-state Arbitration Awards

With the in-depth development of economic globalization, international investment grows rapidly. With the in-depth development of economic globalization, international investment grows rapidly. Investor-state disputes also grows. In order to promote and protect international investment, on March18,1965, Convention on Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States was reached under the auspices of the World Bank and the Center for the Settlement of investment disputes was set up from the convention. After nearly fifty years of practice of investor-state investment arbitration, ICSID has gradually developed into the most important institutions to resolve disputes between the state and investors and the dispute submitted to ICSID also doubles each year. For a dispute to be settled in ICSID Centre, it should first meet the jurisdiction requirements. However, Washington Convention doesn’t clearly define what’s the "protected investor" in the convention. In the practice of ICSID arbitration, nearly50years, various arbitral tribunals basing on the Convention, combined with the applicable investment treaties to the parties, have given a definition to the "protected investor", which had developed some common standard. However, still on some issues, arbitral tribunals have some different opinion. This paper will first introduce the conventions and relevant investment treaties, which the main provisions of the investors in them are the legal basis for the ICSID arbitration tribunal to make the jurisdiction decision concerning the definition of investor. The main legislation for the definition of investor is the article25of the convention and the provisions in the related investment treaties. then, basing on the jurisdiction awards from the ICSID tribunal, this paper will give an analysis to the problems with widespread controversy, including the standard of piercing the corporate veil and the standard of the application and interpretation of law. In this part of the article, the related theory will be introduced. And then analysis will be given to the fixed standard developed in the arbitration practice and the problems where there are disputes. In the third part of this article, the influence of ICSID arbitral awards will be introduced. On the one hand, the developing international investment law is affected, on the other hand, many countries amend their domestic law and the investment treaties. At the end of this article, suggestions will be given to the concept of investor, including the standard of indirect control and piercing the corporate veil,the standard of the application and interpretation of law, and keeping the uniform and consistency of the tribunal awards.