Foreign Investment Disputes: Access of Private Individuals to International Tribunals

Abstract

The increase in private international investment since the Second World War has given rise to a substantial number of disputes, often of a most complex nature. A private investor in a foreign land might be subject to certain governmental activities which tend to undermine his investment and provoke a subsequent legal claim. Expropriation and nationalization, currency and exchange restrictions, discriminatory taxation, export and import quotas, and political and economic harassment are types of governmental activity that have given rise to disputes in the past. Governments have traditionally defended many such activities as necessary measures to curb excessive resource exploitation and to deter the promotion of foreign investment schemes inconsistent with national interests.