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ดุลพาห

THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT COURT

SYSTEM : A FALSE GOOD IDEA?

Vanina Sucharitkul*

The rapid growth over the last two decades of international investment,

1
peaked in 2007 at US$10 trillion, and the increasing number of Foreign Direct
Investment (“FDI”) representing US$1.75 trillion, have led to an increase
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in disputes between foreign investors and host States. With increasing
demand due to the growth in international investment, the world has

witnessed the proliferation of international investment agreements (“IIAs”),
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which now number nearly 3,000 and involve some 185 different States. IIAs
offer critical infrastructure for globalisation and are one of the foundations
of larger dialogues related to the international political economy. These IIAs

include Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”), regional agreements, Free Trade
Agreements (“FTAs”), and specialised agreements such as the Energy Chartered

Treaty (“ECT”). As a general matter, IIAs subject the host State to certain set

* Vanina Sucharitkul, FCIArb, J.D., LL.M. Email: vanina@sucharitkul.com.
1. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (“UNCTAD”), World Investment
Report 2007 : Transnational Corporations, Extractive Industries and Development, 2007.
Retrieved from http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationArchive.aspx?publicationid=724.
2. UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2017 : Investment and the Digital Economy, 2017.
Retrieved from http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=1782.
3. According to UNCTAD, as of 17 May 2018, the number of BITs currently stand at 2,946
with 2,362 currently in force. UNCTAD Investment Policy Hub. Retrieved from http://
investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org/IIA.

4. Id.

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