A foreign investor's power to sue a host State plays a vital
role in investment protection. Investment arbitration is undertaken
to resolve disputes between a foreign investor and the host State
and is also known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement
(ISDS) and differs from an International
Commercial Arbitration (ICA/s) dispute due to the
nature of the claim and the parties involved. While the former
deals with disputes arising under a public treaty between two
contracting States, the latter deals with disputes arising out of a
commercial contractual obligation1.
Under a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT/s),
States ensure certain rights and protections to investors from the
other contracting State2. These include Fair and
Equitable Treatment, National Treatment, Most Favoured Nation
(MFN), Protection from Expropriation to name a
few. Each of these are protections accorded under international law
and are usually negotiated upon by the contracting States, such
that any
