Enabling Private Ordering - the University of Minnesota Law School

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4 MINNESOTA JOURNAL OF INT’L LAW [Vol. 18:1 Contracts under Domestic Laws ........................... 79 3. Contract Regulation, Contract Termination, and Opportunistic Behavior.................................. 81 V.THE SCOPE OF UMBRELLA CLAUSES ................................... 84 A. THE PROTECTION OF CONTRACTUAL PROMISES AND THE NOTION OF INVESTMENT ............................... 85 B. UMBRELLA CLAUSE AND UNILATERAL PROMISES BY THE HOST STATE ..................................................... 89 VI.CONCLUSION: TAMING THE SPIRITS ................................... 93 I. INTRODUCTION: “SPIRITS THAT I’VE CITED—MY COMMANDS IGNORE . . .”? Many investment treaties contain clauses providing that “[e]ach Contracting Party shall observe any other obligation it has assumed with regard to investments by nationals or companies of the other Contracting Party in its territory.” 1 Such clauses are most commonly designated as “umbrella clauses” 2 because they create a separate obligation under the investment treaty, requiring the Contracting Parties to observe obligations the host State has assumed in its relations with nationals of the other Contracting Party. Until recently, little debate existed as to the construction, the scope of application, and the general effect of such clauses. Commentators, rather unanimously, opined that [t]hese provisions seek to ensure that each Party to the treaty will respect specific undertakings towards nationals of the other Party. The provision is of particular importance because it protects the investor’s contractual rights against any interference which might be caused by either a simple breach of contract or by administrative or legislative acts, and because it is not entirely clear under general international law whether such measures constitute breaches of an international 1. German-Argentine BIT, F.R.G.-Arg., Apr. 9, 1991, BGBl. II 1993, 1244 (“Artikel 2 (1). Jede Vertragspartei wird in ihrem Hoheitsgebiet Kapitalanlagen von Staatsangehörigen oder Gesellschaften der anderen Vertragspartei fördern und diese Kapitalanlangen in Übereinstimmung mit ihren Rechtsvorschriften zulassen.”). It is estimated that approximately 40% of bilateral investment treaties contain umbrella clauses. See Judith Gill et al., Contractual Claims and Bilateral Investment Treaties, 21 J. INT’L ARB. 397, 403 n.31 (2004). 2. Other designations include “elevator clauses,” “parallel effect clauses,” or “mirror effect clauses.” See Anthony C. Sinclair, The Origins of the Umbrella Clause in the International Law of Investment Protection, 20 ARB. INT’L 411, 412–13 (2004), for a discussion of the different designations and the origin of the term “umbrella clause.”
2009] UMBRELLA CLAUSES 5 obligation. 3 One should have thus expected little difficulty in the application of umbrella clauses by arbitral tribunals. In practice, however, their application has turned into one of the most contentious issues of international investment law. 4 3. RUDOLF DOLZER & MARGRETE STEVENS, BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES 81–82 (1995); accord GEORGES R. DELAUME, TRANSNATIONAL CONTRACTS— APPLICABLE LAW AND SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES (1993); KENNETH J. VANDEVELDE, UNITED STATES INVESTMENT TREATIES 81 et seq. (1992); OPPENHEIM’S INTERNATIONAL LAW § 408 (Robert Y. Jennings & Arthur D. Watts eds., 9th ed. 1992); U.N. CONFERENCE ON TRADE & DEV., BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES IN THE MID-1990’S 56 (1998); U.N. CONFERENCE ON TRADE & DEV., BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES IN THE MID-1990’S 56 (1998); Derek W. Bowett, State Contracts with Aliens: Contemporary Developments in Compensation for Termination or Breach of Contract of International Law, 59 BRIT. Y.B. INT’L L. 49 (1988); Joachim Karl, The Promotion and Protection of German Foreign Investment Abroad, 11 ICSID REV.–FOREIGN INV. L.J. 1, 23 (1996); Marian Nash Leich, Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 84 AM. J. INT’L L. 885, 898 (1990); F. A. Mann, British Treaties for the Promotion and Protection of Investments, 52 BRIT. Y.B. INT’L L. 242, 246 (1981); François Rigaux, Les situations juridiques individuelles dans un système de relativité générale, 213 RECUEIL DES COURS 1, 230 (1989–I); Ibrahim F. I. Shihata, Applicable Law in International Arbitration: Specific Aspects in Case of the Involvement of State- Parties, in 2 THE WORLD BANK IN A CHANGING WORLD: SELECTED ESSAYS AND LECTURES 595, 601 (Ibrahim F. I. Shihata & James D. Wolfensohn eds., 1995); Prosper Weil, Problèmes relatifs aux contracts passés entre un Etat et un particulier, 128 RECUEIL DES COURS 95, 130 (1969-III). 4. For the more recent debate surrounding the application of the umbrella clause, see Stanimir A. Alexandrov, Breaches of Contract and Breaches of Treaty, 5 J. WORLD INV. & TRADE 555 (2004); John P. Gaffney & James L. Loftis, The “Effective Ordinary Meaning” of BITs and the Jurisdiction of Treaty-Based Tribunals to Hear Contract Claims, 8 J. WORLD INV. & TRADE 5 (2007); Walid Ben Hamida, La clause relative au respect des engagements dans les traites d’investissement, in NOUVEAUX DEVELOPPEMENTS DANS LE CONTENTIEUX ARBITRAL TRANSNATIONAL RELATIF A L’INVESTISSEMENT INTERNATIONAL 53 (Charles Leben ed., 2006); Bjørn Kunoy, Singing in the Rain – Developments in the Interpretation of Umbrella Clauses, 7 J. WORLD INV. & TRADE 275 (2006); Hein-Jürgen Schramke, The Interpretation of Umbrella Clauses in Bilateral Investment Treaties, 4 TRANSNAT’L DISP. MGMT. (May 2007); Christoph Schreuer, Travelling the BIT Route: Of Waiting Period, Umbrella Clauses and Forks in the Road, 5 J. WORLD INV. & TRADE 231, 249–55 (2004); Sinclair, supra note 2; Thomas W. Wälde, Contract Claims under the Energy Charter’s Umbrella Clause: Original Intentions versus Emerging Jurisprudence, in INVESTMENT ARBITRATION AND THE ENERGY CHARTER TREATY 205 (Clarisse Ribeiro ed., 2006); Thomas W. Wälde, The “Umbrella Clause” in Investment Arbitration: A Comment on Original Intentions and Recent Cases, 6 J. WORLD INV. & TRADE 183 (2005); André von Walter, Die Reichweite von Schirmklauseln in Investitionsschutzabkommen nach der jüngsten ICSID- Spruchpraxis, 52 RECHT DER INTERNATIONALEN WIRTSCHAFT 815 (2006); Jarrod Wong, Umbrella Clauses in Bilateral Investment Treaties: Of Breaches of Contract, Treaty Violations, and the Divide between Developing and Developed Countries in Foreign Investment Disputes, 14 GEO. MASON L. REV. 135 (2006); Vlad Zolia, Effect
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