The role of bilateral investment treaties in international arbitration

Spremembe, ki so se zgodile v zadnjih letih na področju javne politike, predvsem v državah v razvoju, so povzročile ugodne okoliščine za priliv tujih direktnih investicij. Ovire so odpadle in tuji investitorji so se podali na nove osvajalne pohode – pojavilo se je obdobje tuje privatizacije. Tuje investicijsko okolje je zelo konkurenčno predvsem pa neznano okolje. Investitor v tuji državi kot tujec nima določenih pravic ali jih ima le v omejenem obsegu. In tu nastopijo BIS-i. BIS-i so se zaradi množične uporabe precej razvili. To je povzročilo potrebo po njihovi temeljitejši analizi, saj lahko neustrezno sestavljen sporazum naredi več škode kot koristi. Določbe povprečnega BIS-a delimo na: materialne zaščite (pravice), procesne pravice in kar je najpomembnejše z vidika samega investitorja mehanizem za reševanje sporov. Mehanizem za reševanje sporov zajema dve vrsti arbitraže: investitor-država in država-država arbitražo. Za investitorja je pomembna prva, saj ima investitor možnost neposrednega zahtevka in lahko sam nastopa kot stranka in se bori za svoje pravice. V drugem primeru pa je bil odvisen od političnih in gospodarskih teženj domače države in je zato nemalokrat ostal prevaran brez ustrezne zaščite in varstva. Vendar še tako dobro premišljen in sestavljen BIS ne nudi gotovosti. V praksi se je pokazala velika negotovost in nedoslednost pri razlagi in s tem tudi uporabi samega BIS-a. V pravni praksi pa arbitražne odločbe nimajo precedenčne vrednosti, kar še dodatno zmanjšuje njihovo predvidljivost. Zaradi spremembe pomena mednarodnih investicij oziroma njenega močnega povečanja so posledice vidne tudi na drugih področjih. Tako so investicije dobile svojo arbitražo (ICSID) in tudi mednarodni sporazumi o investicijah so dobili svojo osebnost in razvili sebi lastne značilnosti in s tem pripomogli k varstvu in varnosti tujim investitorjem in tujim direktnim investicijam. Vpliv spremembe je moč zaznati tudi v nacionalnih zakonodajah, kjer so države množično spreminjale svoje dosedanje investicijske zakone in jih tako ustrezno uskladile z mednarodnim investicijskim pravom in tako storile naslednji korak k poenotenju investicijskega prava na splošno. Pomembno je poudariti, da so investicije v zadnjih 15 letih (od začetka 1990-tih), tako pridobile na pomenu, da je razvoj arbitraže in sporazumov povezan z njimi vse hitrejši in pomembnejši iz dneva v dan. V določenem trenutku, pa je to medsebojno učinkovanje sporazum – investicije, tako tesno, da je težko ločiti ali so sporazumi tisti, ki vplivajo na povečanje tokov investicij, ali pa je povečano število tokov investicij tisto, kar pogojuje sklepanje vedno večjega števila sporazumov.Changes that happened in the last few years on field of public policy, especially in developing countries have created favourable circumstances for the inflow of foreign direct investments. Obstacles were gone and foreign investors went on new conquests – period of foreign privatization appeared. Foreign investment environment is very competitive and above all unfamiliar environment. A foreign investor in a foreign country does not have certain rights or he has them only in limited scope. And this is where the BITs come in. BITs have developed a great deal because of massive use. This created a need for more thorough analysis of the BITs. If an agreement is inappropriately made, it can make more damage than it is worth. Common provisions of an average BIT can be divided into three groups: substantive provisions (or rights), procedural rights and the most important thing from investor’s prospective a mechanism for resolving investment disputes. The later includes two types of arbitration: investor-state and state-state arbitration. The first on is very important for the investor, because he has a possibility of direct claim and he can appear as a party in a dispute and fights for his own rights. In state-state arbitration he would have to rely on political and economic aspirations of his home country. So often he is left deceited and with no sufficient protection and security. However, even the best formulated and well thought-out BIT can not give you enough certainty. Large uncertainty was shown in practice and great deal of inconsistency was present at interpretation and use of a BIT. In legal practice arbitration awards have no precedent, which diminishes their predictability. Change of importance of international investments and their proliferation brought consequences that are also visible in other areas. So investments got their own arbitration (ICSID) and international investment agreements got their own personality and they even developed some very distinctive features. This helped foreign investors and foreign direct investments to gain protection and security. The influence of change can be seen in many national legislations, because countries have started to change their existing investment laws. They have suitably harmonized them with international investment law and thus made next step to homogenizing of investment law in general. It is important to emphasize, that the investments have in the last 15 years (since 1990) become so important, that the development of arbitration and treaties connected with them is getting faster and more important from day to day. In a specific moment in time this mutual influence between treaty and investments is so strong it is hard to distinguish whether it is treaty the one who is influencing the increased flow of investments or is it the other way around