BITs in pieces

Argentina is launching a direct attack on the validity of investment treaties, and other countries may be about to follow its lead. How are investors responding to the challenge? Maria Kielmas reports

If you are feeling comfortable with that clause in your contract with a foreign government that permits international arbitration of disputes, think again. After a decade and a half of unprecedented growth in foreign direct investment worldwide, and the signing of more than 2,000 bilateral investment treaties (BITs – see Energy Risk October 2004) between states, some governments are calling it a day. The reason is, as the governments see it, that investors are using the