Study On Public Health Of The Host Countries Under The Perspective Of International Investment Law

With the deepening of the process of economic globalization, the international investment activities of transnational corporations extends to all areas of the host country, which has played a positive role in promoting the host country’s economic and social development. However, the traditional international investment agreements prefer to protect the interests of investors, which place too much emphasis on investment liberalization and high standards of investment protection. So the host country of public health protection ran into trouble. Recent international investment disputes between investors and the host country more result from public health protection measures taken by the host country concerned. Especially since the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) entried into force, the States Parties have taken tobacco control measures to implement national obligations related to the Convention, which in turn caused strong resentment among multinational tobacco companies. As a result, the multinational tobacco companies have launched a new round of international arbitrations against the host countries. In order to balance the interests of foreign investors and public health protection, recent international investment treaties have introduced in GATT or GATS "General Exceptions" clause; and international community has begun to reform the international arbitration mechanism under the current investment treaties to change the host country’s unfavorable situation. As the expectations of the international community, a new generation of investment policies—Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development is gradually formed. Therefore, China should also make a difference, not only to maintain their public health and other public interests, but also to regulate the behavior of foreign investment in order to avoid being double damage.In addition to the Conclusion, this article is divided into four parts. Chapter1(instead of the Introduction) is to discuss the subject-the public health protection dilemma of the host country by a simple analysis of the two "Philip·Morris cases ". Chapter2is a detailed analysis of the reasons for the dilemma of the host country to protect public health, such as the excessive liberalization tendency in the existing international investment treaties, the defects of the international arbitration mechanism, the conflicts between international investment treaties and other international treaties. Chapter3discusses the strategies to deal with the dilemma of public health protection, such as establishing a new generation of investment policies, humanizing the international investment treaties, innovating the investment arbitration mechanism, implementing the social responsibilities of transnational corporations. Chapter4describes the status of public health protection in China, and raises some strategies for the problems mentioned above.