9 General Treatment Standards

Subject(s):

Investor — Investment — BITs (Bilateral Investment Treaties) — Specialized treaty frameworks — National treatment — Full protection and security — Arbitrary (unreasonable) & discriminatory treatment standard — Fair and equitable treatment standard — Most-favoured-nation treatment (MFN)

In order to protect foreign investments against the political risk created b by placing assets under a host country’s jurisdiction, investment treaties stipulate obligations regarding the ‘treatment’ that host countries must give to investors and their investments. This chapter discusses the absolute and relative general forms of treatment most frequently accorded to investors and investments by international investment treaties. These include fair and equitable treatment, national treatment, most-favoured-nation treatment, full protection and security, and minimum treatment according to the standards of international law. However, the degree of protection afforded individual investments may vary significantly among treaties. Consequently, persons interpreting investment treaty provisions should give careful attention to the differing ways in which individual treaty texts articulate their protections.