Research On Legal Issues Of Cultural Heritage Protection In International Investment

In the current international economic society,attracting foreign investment has become an important way for countries to develop their own economies.However,with more and more investment activities taking place,the conflicts between investors and host countries become more and more intense,which is also reflected in the protection of cultural heritage.In order to protect the cultural heritage of the host country,restrictions on the investment behavior of foreign investors will inevitably harm the investment interests of the investors.Investors often bring an arbitration to an arbitral tribunal on the grounds that the host country's conduct constitutes a expropriation violation of the investment agreement.However,because the international arbitration tribunal evolved from the commercial arbitration,Its trial of the case continues the secrecy of commercial arbitration,resulting in the low transparency of arbitration.And because of the arbitral tribunal having an excessive tendency to protect the interests of investors,the outcome of the arbitration is usually unfavourable to the host country.China acceded to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1985.By 2017,31 items of cultural heritage and 4items of dual world cultural and natural heritage had been listed in the World Heritage list.The fact that China has so many cultural heritage means that China should pay attention to the protection of cultural heritage in international investment.With the rapid development of China's economy,it has the dual identity of investor and investor in international investment.In the future,whether China's cultural heritage is damaged by foreign investors or China's foreign investment encroaches upon the cultural heritage of other countries,the study of international arbitration cases concerning the protection of cultural heritage will enable China to prepare for such cases that may occur in the future,and then to face them calmly.With the development of the concept of sustainabledevelopment of investment policy in the international community,the protection of public interest has been paid more and more attention by the host country.And China should not be an exception,cultural heritage protection should also be included in the signing of international investment agreements.In addition to the introduction and conclusions,this paper consists of four parts.The first part is the protection of cultural heritage in international investment.This part firstly evaluates and analyzes the dispute settlement methods of international investment arbitration,and draws the conclusion that the existing arbitration methods are not good enough to protect the cultural heritage of the host country.Then,it is discussed that the existing international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage can not provide perfect protection for cultural heritage in international arbitration too.Therefore,new ideas should be developed to achieve the goal of protecting cultural heritage in international investment activities.The second part is the theoretical basis of cultural heritage protection in International Investment disputes.This part mainly expounds the theoretical basis of the protection of the cultural heritage of the host country by discussing the rules of public interest,the principle of sustainable development,the cultural right and obligations erga omnes.The third part is an analysis of the legal issues related to the Protection of Cultural Heritage in International Investment Arbitration.This part introduces two relevant cases to explain the issues of indirect expropriation,standards of compensation,Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,the system of Environmental impact Assessment and a friend of the court and analyzes their roles and defects in international arbitration cases concerning the protection of cultural heritage.The last part is countermeasures of protecting China's Cultural Heritage under the background of International Investment.In this part,the corresponding countermeasures are put forward for the problems raised in the third part.First of all,aiming at the countermeasures of BIT,this paper puts forward four measures: unifying the standard of indirect levy and compensation of host country,setting exception clause,incorporating the principle of sustainable development and perfecting the relevant arbitration clause.Secondly,attach importance to the role of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and other international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage in arbitration cases,and actively apply and practice these conventions.Finally,the paper puts forward the improvement of China's domestic environmental impact assessment system.