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Host-State Counterclaims in Investment Arbitration: Holding Investors Accountable for Human Rights Violations
Klímová, Nikola ; Balaš, Vladimír (advisor) ; Šturma, Pavel (referee)
1 Abstract Host-State Counterclaims in Investment Arbitration: Holding Investors Accountable for Human Rights Violations International investment arbitration has been long criticized for its structural bias against host states in favour of the defence of the interests of investors. The one-way character of this dispute settlement mechanism has been, however, recently challenged in the light of numerous cases in which arbitrators were confronted with counterclaims of host states, requesting damages for investors' illegal conduct. To successfully assert counterclaims in arbitral proceedings, host states have to deal with a series of difficulties. The submission of a dispute to an arbitral tribunal first requires consent both on the part of an investor and a host state. Its scope is determined by the language of dispute settlement provisions in international investment agreements. While these instruments generally accept a wide range of investors' claims related to their investments, counterclaims of host states fall within the jurisdiction of tribunals only if the international investment agreements contain a dispute settlement clause with broad wording. The second condition which concerns the admissibility of host states' counterclaims is their close connection with the primary claims advanced by investors....
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Investment Protection in the European Union
Olík, Miloš ; Pauknerová, Monika (advisor) ; Feigerlová, Monika (referee) ; Ondřej, Jan (referee)
1 Abstract This dissertation deals with investment protection in the European Union from several points of view. The first part deals with the history of investment protection and its main basis and grounds for current legislation and proposals for future regulation, particularly within the EU. In subsequent parts, current legislation and intra-European Union investment protection is analysed in detail, including the question of validity and applicability of Intra-EU BITs, i.e. bilateral treaties concluded between two EU Member States. The analysis is made from the perspective of EU law, as well as from the point of view of public international law. The dissertation further deals with their relationship and demonstrates contradictions between them in two crucial cases, Eureko/Achmea and Micula. Additional themes of this dissertation are the powers of the European Union regarding investment protection and the conclusion of international treaties such as CETA and TTIP. This dissertation further deals with the status, jurisdiction and functioning of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), demonstrating the relatively smooth and widely accepted investment dispute settlement mechanism. In this regard, the proposed EU Multilateral Investment Court project in analysed, including a...
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Investment Policy of the European Union - protection of foreign direct investment
Štamberk, David ; Tomášek, Michal (advisor) ; Balaš, Vladimír (referee) ; Křepelka, Filip (referee)
Investment Policy of the European Union - protection of foreign direct investment Abstract One of the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty is the explicit inclusion of foreign direct investment and its protection in the common commercial policy of the European Union. This is one of the areas of exclusive competence of the EU. The European Union has subsequently stated negotiating bilateral agreements governing, inter alia, investment issues. However, it has not been spared from controversy and negative publicity that has been accompanying especially the TTIP and the CETA. This work aims to analyse the investment policy of the EU and mutual interaction of its institutions with the Member States and third parties. After general introduction to the topic of international investment law and EU law (chapters II. and III.), it is devoted to the issue of protection of foreign investment in the internal market. Its regime is then compared with the BIT regime (chapter IV.). Attention is then focussed towards the EU's external relations in the field of investment protection. Its competence is subjected to further analysis (chapter V.) and current results of efforts of the Commission and the EU as such are also discussed (chapter VI.). It is so in the light of possible impacts of foreign investment in terms of...
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Recent Trends in Fair and Equitable Treatment in Investment Arbitration
Hrčka, Daniel ; Balaš, Vladimír (advisor) ; Šturma, Pavel (referee)
(English) Often evoked by investors before arbitral tribunals and at the same time causing controversy and uncertainty with regard to its contents. Fair and equitable treatment standard of protection (FET) suffers from its vague formulation in bilateral investment treaties but simultaneously this characteristic enables it to fulfil the function of filling gaps left by other standards of protection. This results in a fact that uniform understanding of the standard seems impossible to achieve. Inherent dispute on whether FET amounts only to minimum standard of treatment under customary international law or is rather an autonomous standard is also embodied in various wordings of FET clauses present in the treaties. Unless specific link to minimum standard is made, almost all methods of legal interpretation prove that FET is an autonomous concept. Enumeration of sub-elements of FET in clauses will also not achieve certainty mainly because of disputes on contents of some of these sub-elements. Effort to shed more light on the contents of the standard is achieved by evaluation of values of rule of law as well as requirements of morality and legality (necessary for functioning of every legal system) presented by legal philosopher Lon Fuller. A set of universally accepted principles is extracted from these...
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International Investment Agreements and European Union Law
Fecák, Tomáš ; Šturma, Pavel (advisor) ; Balaš, Vladimír (referee) ; Švarc, Zbyněk (referee)
The relationship between international investment agreements and EU law has attracted increased attention in past few years. The aim of this thesis is to bring a detailed analysis of various aspects of this complicated relationship. In attainment of this aim it proceeds in the following steps. After a short introduction (Chapter I.), Chapter II. briefly overviews typical content of bilateral investment treaties, following with a more detailed analysis of relevant EU law rules concerning foreign investment and subsequent comparison of both sets of rules. Chapter III. deals with investment agreements to be concluded by the EU, in particular with questions of external competence for foreign investment, responsibility for breaches of investment agreements concluded by the EU and the future shape of EU investment policy. The status of existing bilateral investment treaties concluded between EU member states and third countries is analyzed in Chapter IV. Chapter V. tackles various issues related to investment treaties concluded between member states (so called intra-EU BITs).
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Selected aspects of resolving international investment disputes
Skolil, Ivo ; Balaš, Vladimír (advisor) ; Trapl, Vojtěch (referee)
Resumé This thesis on selected aspects of the resolution of the international investments disputes tackles the challenge of the arbitrator under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States. Its main aim is to analyze current legal regulation of the arbitrator's qualification and the following challenge procedures. Further to analyze, how is current international practice with regard to issue of impartiality and independence of arbitrators in case law of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Upon such analysis to reveal shortcuts of the legal regulation and case law and propose future improvements for the whole system of the arbitrators' challenges. The thesis itself is dividing into chapters, the first chapter deals with the arbitrators' qualifications and challenges in the international investment arbitration. Further refers to the interpretation of relevant articles of the Washington Convention by arbitral tribunals and to conclusions formulated by them in challenge decisions. The second chapter is base on the comparison between arbitrators' challenges and qualifications in the international investment arbitration and the international commercial arbitration, where is main target to analyze differences of both systems....
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Legal and economic aspects of foreign direct investment and historical evolution
Merenda, David ; Bažantová, Ilona (advisor) ; Hraba, Zdeněk (referee)
The aim of the present thesis is to introduce the topic of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the multiscience (multidiscipline) perspective. FDI is a phenomena that cuts across many fields of human activity. It is of major significance for the national economies and an important factor for the global economic growth. Although these characteristics of FDI are widely known today, it was not always the case in the past. Since the sixties, it has been a focus of deeper studies and an object of interest especially for the international organizations that supervise the global economy. As each socio-economic phenomena, the issue of FDI has its historical background and this thesis seeks to comprehend this subject and further tracks the emergence of the business climate and economical processes that show the characteristics of later defined FDI. The historical formation of FDI is related to qualitative and quantitative development of the phenomena, and to its temporal and geopolitical context. The thesis presents the most relevant factors and causes of the present state of FDI, and monitors the crucial moments of the elements contributing to the evolution of the international investment environment. A more detailed study is devoted to Central European countries, since their specific development after...
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