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VOJTĚCH TRAPL
CYIL 4 ȍ2013Ȏ
The authors have come to the conclusion that international investment law
is indeed a significant part of international economic law, although international
standards of investment law and practice are not stabilized yet. The authors therefore
deal with the reasons why standards on governing international investment law are
not an element of universal binding international law (customary law) – and thus it
is likely to be assumed that these standards are based mainly on particular rules of
international law.
The particular rules of international law are constituted by international treaty
instruments, both on bilateral investment promotion and protection (BIT) and
treaties on friendship, commerce and navigation (FCN), or multilateral agreements,
including, first, the 1965 Washington Convention on the Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID), further the 1994 International Energy Charter Treaty (ECT),
the 1994 Agreement of the WTO (TRIMS), alongside the regional conventions
under free trade agreements (NAFTA, CAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN etc.) that
also protect the investment of foreign nationals in the host country on the basis
of contractual obligations established by the subjects of international law. The
monograph is separately devoted to the protection of investment by the European
Union, as well as within the Union, after that the Lisbon Treaty (TFEU) entered into
force on 1 December 2009.
The monograph shows the current practice that is represented by many investment
arbitration tribunals, and it gives examples of the practice of international judicial
bodies, combining selected decisions of institutional arbitration tribunals (particularly
the Washington Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, ICSID), as well as of
ad hoc
arbitral tribunals (specifically UNCITRAL) by enumerating various institutes
and standards of investment protection.
The general character of international investment law is not constituted by
a common practice of judicial impartial international bodies, notably by arbitral
tribunals, because, first, it is not based on the principle of precedent (
stare decisis
principle
) and it lacks any common international judiciary; second, it is essentially
inconsistent, because of the compromising of diverse international authorities which
are called upon to decide disputes arising from international investments according
to the international treaty instruments.
The monograph uses excerpts from a large number of foreign theoretical works,
giving their full summary in its closing part and refers to the sources in the text.
It makes reference to various and relevant decisions of the International Court of
Justice in particular, as well as of the arbitral tribunals.
The authors have made valuable conclusions and recommendations both to the
behavior of states and the decision-making practice of arbitration tribunals.
With respect to this very competent work and its very skilled, tight and clear
content, the monograph cannot but be recommended for everyday use in the