The Human Rights Protection Of Host State In International Investment Arbitration

Nowadays, the investment arbitration has become the most effective mechanism to solve invest-state investment disputes. The population of investment arbitrations not only leads to the heavily increase of cases before the arbitral institutions, but also causes a series of new problems. One of them is that the relationship between the duties under investment law and the non-investment duties, such as human rights duties, has been challenged.Under international investment law, according to the investment treaties and contracts, the host state bears obligations to protect investors; while the host state also has an obligation to protect the human rights within its territory or jurisdiction. However, in some cases, the measures that the host state takes in order to protect human rights would harm the interests of investor, then the investor may make claims in international investment arbitration.This paper aims to analyze the human rights protection of host state in international investment arbitration. It firstly introduces the relationship between international human rights law and investment law and the impact and contents of their interaction; then it analyses the dilemma of human rights protection of host state from discussing the conflicts between the duties of human rights law and investment law, and the human rights claims of host states in investment arbitrations; after that, it analyses the possibility of applying human rights law to investment arbitration from the aspects of human rights law as applicable law and NGOs as amicus curiae raise human rights concerns; finally it discusses how to improve the human rights protection of host state in investment arbitration, and put forward the status and measures that China should take for protecting human rights in international investment arbitrations.This paper uses the empirical analysis method and the interdisciplinary analysis methods, combined with international investment treaties, human rights theories and international investment arbitration mechanism, and discusses the problems from theoretical and practical levels by analyzing the cases concerning the human rights issues of host states in international investment arbitrations.