The lecture addresses the relationship between the state and private investors, and the area of law that has developed to arbitrate conflicts between them. It was only thirty years ago, in 1990, that an arbitral tribunal awarded compensation to an investor for the first time for a violation of a bilateral investment treaty by the host state. Since then, international investment law has developed from a once “exotic” fringe phenomenon into one of the most dynamic – and currently most politically controversial – areas of international law.
International investment law, today a subject of both international law and European law, describes the complex interplay of over 3,000 bilateral and plurilateral investment treaties, related arbitral tribunal decisions, rules of general international law and regional integration agreements such as the Lisbon Treaty. Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) not only guarantee protection standards for investments, but also empower investors, as non-state actors, to assert these standards - independently and directly - at the international level before international arbitration tribunals against the host state in the event of a dispute. International investment law has established itself - alongside world trade law - as a second, independent pillar of international law governing economic globalisation processes.
The lecture covers the economic background, the essential structures, the substantive and procedural standards conveyed by bilateral investment treaties and their interpretation by arbitration tribunals, as well as current developments and contemporary criticism. Furthermore, its growing importance and its classification as a subfield of international law raise the question of how international investment law relates to and interacts with general international law and other areas of international law. The lecture therefore also deals with the tension between international economic law and other global public goods, such as human rights, the protection of the environment, the climate and health, the introduction of non-discrimination policies, and even the law on emergency measures. Finally, the European dimension of investment law will also be addressed, as the expansion of EU competence in the area of foreign investment under the Lisbon Treaty raises a variety of questions.
The lecture is now offered in English for participants in Focus Area 6 (Schwerpunktbereich 6) as well as for participants in the new Humboldt Master of Laws programme (LLM 4b: Profile: Law & Society).
Griebel, Internationales Investitionsrecht, 2008
Kriebaum / Schreuer: Principles of International Investment Law, Oxford, Third Edition 2022
Lim / Ho / Paparinskis, International Investment Law and Arbitration, Second Edition 2021
Lehrveranstaltung wird - nunmehr - auf Englisch sowohl für Teilnehmer des Schwerpunktbereich 6 wie auch für Teilnehmer des - neuen - Humboldt Master of Laws (LLM 4b: Profile: Law & Society) angeboten.
Anschrift zur Kontaktaufnahme für Studierende per Email an: Dr. Tillmann Rudolf Braun, tillmann.braun@arcor.de
Anschließende StudienarbeitLL.M.-Studiengänge und Erasmus: Mündliche Prüfung
Die Veranstaltung wurde 9 mal im Vorlesungsverzeichnis SoSe 2026 gefunden:
