| Environmental protection standards in international investment agreements are closely linked to environmental protection.In order to improve the level of environmental protection,it is urgent and important to improve environmental protection standards.In practice,the environmental protection clauses in international investment agreements are not legally binding,there is a conflict between environmental protection and investment protection,and the arbitral tribunal’s application of the “investment protection” clause and the different understanding of the scope of “indirect expropriation”,etc.The reason is that environmental protection clauses have failed to exert their due legal binding force,and a variety of environmental protection standards have appeared in practice.In order to protect the environmental interests of the host country,attract more investors,and develop international investment,this article is dedicated to discussing a universally applicable comprehensive environmental protection standard that enhances the legal binding force of environmental protection clauses,unifies the judgment standards of the arbitration tribunal,and Improving the investment protection agreement is of promotional significance,and at the same time,it can increase the implementation of environmental protection clauses and improve the country’s rule of law.This article starts from the basic theoretical overview of environmental protection standards in international investment agreements,discusses the connotation and characteristics of environmental protection standards and environmental protection clauses,and the relationship between the two,and compares the existing environmental protection standards in international investment agreements.Research and analysis of the main problems existing in the current standards: the diversification of standards,the excessive discretion of the arbitration tribunal,the abstraction of environmental protection clauses,and the restrictions on "environmental protection" clauses such as "investment protection" clauses.And analyzed the reasons and hazards.Therefore,this article then proposes a comprehensive identification method for environmental protection standards.Different from the previous environmental protection standards,the existing environmental protection standards often only consider whether they meet environmental protection conditions from a single perspective,and lack a certain overall thinking.Moreover,the scientific nature of the comprehensive identification of environmental protection standards lies in the suggestion to quantify and analyze the problems related to environmental pollution and damage.This standard is not only applicable to the country’s formulation of domestic environmental protection standards,but also to situations where the arbitration tribunal judges whether the environmental protection control measures of the host country meet the environmental protection standards.Simply put,the arbitration tribunal is determining the severity of damage to the host country’s environment caused by investor behavior.At that time,we should not be partial to foreign investors and discriminate against the environmental interests of the host country.On the other hand,the arbitration tribunal cannot favor the host country and ignore the interests of the foreign investors when determining whether the environmental protection measures taken by the host country to foreign investors exceed the necessary limits. |
