IDEOLOGICAL, LEGAL AND EMPIRICAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW – A FEW OBSERVATIONS

Abstract

There seems to be little doubt in both practice and doctrine that international investment law presents a regime striving for, if not already achieving, substantive multilateralism and uniformity of applied principles, rules and interpretations. This article, however, takes another look at what can be described as the foundations of such a regime – international investment agreements – and in particular ideological, legal and empirical issues surrounding them. A number of observations thus made significantly problematize the assertion that international investment law was indeed made and expected to become a multilateralized, uniform edifice in a substantive sense.