International Investment Law: Origins, Imperialism and Conceptualizing the Environment
Kate Miles, (2010) 21:1 Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy, 1-48.
This paper explores the origins of international investment law and their implications for foreign investment protection law and policy in the twenty-first century. International rules on the protection of foreign-owned property emerged in the context of imperialism during the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries. This paper argues that these origins are of fundamental importance to the shape and character of modern international investment law. They still resonate within its principles, structures, conceptualizations, and dispute resolution systems. As such, this paper examines the historical context in which core principles of this area of the law were developed, the methodologies of imposition, and the more recent manifestations of this traditional relationship between foreign investors, the environment of the host state, and international law. This paper also argues that a reorientation of the focus and principles of international investment law may assist in developing a more balanced conceptualization of this area for the twenty-first century—and, in so doing, may bring about a break from its current pattern of reproducing economic imperialism.
Available for download here CJ -Vol.21.1 2010