Analysis Of The Regulatory Measures Carrying Out By African Countries On Foreign Investors

Since had been established,the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes(hereinafter referred to as "ICSID")has handled lots of Investment disputes arising from the regulatory measures taken by African countries against foreign investors.To some extent,these investment disputes reflect that the regulatory measures taken by African countries against foreign investors may pose risks to investors,and the awards of some cases also indicate that some regulatory measures to some extent are illegal in substance or in procedure.In recent years,China's investment in Africa is growing rapidly and shows a trend of continuous growth.Therefore,this paper,with adopting case study method,through studying the ICSID investment dispute arbitration cases involving African countries,aims to sort out and summarize the specific regulatory measures taken by African countries against investors and then sets out the criteria for judging the legitimacy of host country's regulatory measures with the combination of theory and practice.In addition,by reviewing the existing bilateral investment treaties(hereinafter referred to as“BIT”)between China and Africa,the author thinks that there are a lot of problems in these BITs,such as,the content is too simple,some provisions are vague,investor protection is insufficient,and so forth.At the end of this paper,some relative suggestions were raised for the hope of to be benefit to the Chinese investors' investment in Africa in the future.Apart from the introduction and conclusion,the thesis contains four chapters:In chapter 1,it defines the definition of the host state's right to regulate and the regulatory measure in the context of international investment.Firstly,it defines the concepts of regulation and the right to regulate;secondly,it discusses the legal basis of host state'right to regulate from domestic law and international law;lastly,it illuminates the concepts and classification of the regulatory measure.In chapter 2,it focuses on discussing the Specific regulatory measures taken by African countries in ICSID arbitration cases.Firstly,it combs the general features reflected in these ICSID arbitration cases in which African countries is involved;secondly,it discusses the features reflected in the ICSID arbitration cases in which regulatory measures has been involved;thirdly,it discusses the Specific regulatory measures reflected in these ICSID arbitration cases.In chapter 3,it pays attention to analyses the legal basis and criterion for the judgement of the legitimacy of the regulatory measures taken by the host state.Firstly,it discusses the legal basis of the legitimacy of the regulatory measures taken by the host state from the perspective of the explicit laws and regulations.Secondly,it discusses the criterion,which are for the sake of public interests,follow the principle of proportionality,nondiscrimination,and due process,for the judgement of the legitimacy of the regulatory measures taken by the host state with the combination of theory and practice.In chapter 4,with taking the circumstance of our country into consideration,it firstly analyses the provisions about the right to regulate in China-Africa BITs;secondly,on the basis of the foregoing context,it tries to give some suggestions to Chinese investor from the perspective of legal risk identification,prevention in advance,and searching for relief after being regulating by the host state.