Investment is a critical source of economic growth – leading to improvements in job creation, infrastructure, international trade and innovation. The pivotal question is therefore: how to improve and enhance investment? To facilitate this, International Investment Agreements can be a key factor to support foreign direct investment creating an additional level of security for foreign investors. Are International Investment Agreements fit for purpose or is some re-balance required? If it is, then the question which follows from this is: in whose favour? Should it be the investing country or the host State?

This book provides analysis of International Investment Agreements and their relationship with society and the State in a rapidly changing social and commercial landscape. It also assesses the impact and feasibility of the reform models put forward by the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) including the creation of regional investment courts and the introduction of an appellate system in investor-state arbitration.

The book focusses primarily on twenty-first century developments that have contributed to what academics have termed a legitimacy crisis in international investment law. Theoretical conceptualisation, case studies and doctrinal analysis are employed through the book, in a bid to highlight the legitimacy crisis facing International Investment Law and the progressive reform models that have been proposed or bring instituted around the world. This research is both international and comparative, with a chapter dedicated on the challenges and reform models that are surfacing from around the world, covering Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, the Caribbean and the United States. In addition, three chapters are dedicated to the main reform proposals; namely, a world investment court, reducing the scope of substantive protection standards through innovative treaty drafting approaches and the introduction of an appeals mechanism.

This book contributes to a growing body of research on International Investment Law reform models by examining and providing empirical evidence on the regulatory approaches and treaty making practices in all six continental areas and the impact on the stability of the international investment protection architecture.