State Responsibility for Breaches of Investment Contracts

There is a wealth of material that shapes the law of State responsibility for breaches of investment contracts. First impressions of an unsettled or uncertain law have thus far gone unchallenged. But unchallenged first impressions point to the need for a detailed study that investigates and analyses the sources, the content, the characteristics, and the evolution of this law. The argument at the heart of this monograph is that the law of state responsibility for breaches of investment contracts has carved a unique and distinct trajectory from the traditional route for the creation of international law, developing principally from arbitral awards, and mimicking, to a considerable extent, the general international law on the protection of aliens and alien property. This book unveils the remarkable journey of the law of state responsibility for breaches of investment contracts, from its origins, to its formation, to its arrival at the cusp of maturity.

1. Power and principle in the origins of contractual protection; 2. Arbitral awards and the generation of international law; 3. State responsibility and the core standard of treatment; 4. State responsibility and expropriation; 5. State responsibility and internationalisation; 6. The emerging international law on investment contract protection; 7. The future of international investment contract claims.

This is a compact, yet detailed, study mapping out an underexplored subset of the law of state responsibility, dedicated to contractual protection. It will appeal to scholars, practitioners and students of international investment law, as well as public international lawyers generally.

Jean Ho, FCIArb, is Assistant Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, where she lectures and supervises on diverse aspects of international investment law. Prior to academia, Dr Ho practiced in investor-state dispute settlement. She is a Member of the Investment Treaty Forum of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and an Expert on the UNIDROIT Working Group on Land Agricultural Investment Contracts. Dr Ho is also a co-author of International Investment Law and Arbitration: Commentary, Awards and Other Materials (Cambridge, 2018).