Bate, Kho, Liu Article on Investment Treaties Published by EMPEA
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“Investment Treaties: What Every Emerging Market Investor Needs to Know,” an article written by litigation partner Matthew Bate and international trade partner Stephen Kho and associate Cynthia Liu, has been published by EMPEA Legal & Regulatory Bulletin.
The article discusses the emergence over the last several decades of international investment treaties, which afford investors in most emerging markets “basic legal protections against government interference with their investments” as well as offer “investors a forum to litigate their disputes with the host State before a neutral panel of arbitrators.”
Among the topics covered are the types of agreements—bilateral or multilateral—and their general structure, definitions and discussions of “investor” and “investment,” types of treaty protection such as contingent and non-contingent, and investor-state arbitration.
The article closes with a look at existing U.S. bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free trade agreements as well as ongoing negotiations such as the U.S.-China BIT and the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
The authors close by noting that “For emerging market private equity investors, political or regulatory risk in the jurisdiction of the target investment is a significant factor that can drastically affect the value and even the survival of that investment. Investment treaties can provide a powerful tool to emerging market investors to combat that risk.”
To read the full text of the article, please click here.
