On The Definition Of "Investment" In International Economic Activities

There exist numerous ways to define a term. We can point out a concrete definition with some typical samples followed by; or we can use long sentences and words to describe the characteristics of the term. However, there always be some ambiguity and gaps even with the skilled language ability, let alone in international economic area.Obstacles will never prevent people from finding better ways to introduce the so-called "investment". Most IIAs use a broad, asset-based approach. This approach is a fair choice if the contracting states are capital export countries which can provide protection to the investment as wide as possible. Recently, the arbitrations launched by investors with the host countries demonstrate that the "qualified investment" are wide. In the area of international investment arbitration, tribunals create specific ways to check whether the issue matches the definition. Besides that, tribunals have to interpretation the ICSID convention well. Some tribunals adopt the objective approaches, while others use the subjective ways.This paper analyzes the definition of "investment" in two dimensionalities:the international investment treaties and the tribunal practice. Beside the introduction and the epilogue, the paper can be divided into three parts:Chapterl discusses main approaches used by contracting states as well as the ways many countries used to limited the scope of "investment".Chapter2introduces the practice of the ICSID tribunals by analyzing some ICSID cases. This chapter focuses on the conflicts between the convention and BITs.Chapter3analyzes some conditions about Chinese BITs and how to make use of BITs by defining "investment".