The Research Of The Labor Clauses In The U.S. Investment Treaties

The labor provisions in the investment treaties are the provisions that included in the investment treaties signed between the countries and regions intended to safeguard and promote investment. Essentially, labor provisions are a part of a sovereign state’s domestic law, so compared to those in the international trade agreements, the connection of the labor protection with the international investment law did not cause any attention among the scholars of the international community, at the same time did not realize a set of comprehensive and systematic goals in the terms of the investment agreements. With the development of the society, international investment has become an huge engine of economic globalization, coupled with the trend of the conservation of human rights in the international society, a growing number of countries have begun to realize the importance of protect labor rights through the labor provision in the investment treaties.As one of the most mature countries in terms of putting labor provisions into investment treaties, United States, not only put the provisions of the labor protection into the model bilateral investment treaty, but also create the precedent of turning the labor provisions into the the practice. Considering the dual identity of the United States, both in the area of the international economic and the area of the political, countries signed treaties with it generally accept the total treaties fully or just do some marginal changes, so the study of labor provisions in the U.S. investment treaties can be seen as the explore of the general practice of the international community. In addition, China and the United States is negotiating a bilateral investment treaty, considering the fact that the U.S. always use its model bilateral investment treaty as the foundation of negotiation, so the success of the negotiation partly depends on China’s attitude to the labor provisions. Facing these new international and domestic forms, China have to include the labor provisions into its investment treaties.In order to pave the way for the following discuss, this paper summarize the situation of the labor provisions in the U.S.investment treaties, reviewing its history and analysis the defects. The analysis not only including the labor provisions in the practice but also containing the provisions in its model BIT. With the development of the society, the attitude of the U.S.to the labor provisions in the investment treaties changed from ignore to support, even though the purpose is to achieve the maximize interests. During this process, some developing countries contend that the behavior of the U.S.is a kind of disguised protectionism, but what we have to admit is that the inclusion of labor provisions in the investment treaties has already become a norm. Without a doubt, developing countries will benefit from it. But the inclusion of labor provisions must depend on their own national conditions, otherwise will result in adverse consequences. As for China, with the transformation of its international economic status, putting the labor provisions into the investment treaties has already realized the necessity and the feasibility. But we must bear in mind that the inclusion of the provision must based on our national conditions. At the end of this paper, a harmonious labor provision was put forward.