General Principles of Law and International Investment Law

This chapter argues that recourse to general principles of public law is an important strategy for arbitral tribunals to react to the criticism they have faced in respect of some of their interpretations of substantive standards of international investment law. It analyzes the potential of general principles of law to adapt international investment law and investor-State arbitration to the challenges the system is facing because of its impact on domestic law and policy-making. In developing general principles of law relevant for international investment law, the chapter urges to make use of a comparative public law perspective that views issues of State responsibility under investment treaties and investor-State dispute resolution not in isolation, but in the context of analogous problems that arise at the domestic and the international level.Keywords:arbitral tribunals; international investment law; investment treaties; investor-State arbitration; investor-State dispute; public law