The protection of investments by holding groups and the role of the institution of corporate veil in case-law

The current thesis focuses its attention on the arena of international investment protection. Using available case-law, it aims at answering the question as to in what way the nationality of an investor is being determined under international law - in particular in arbitration. Moreover, it aims at determining the impact a chaining of investors from different states into a holding structure potentially has on the arbiters' view when determining an investor's (or an investment's) nationality. The objective of this thesis is to determine to what extend the institution of corporate veil influences the nationality of persons participating on above described holding structures, in terms of how these are viewed in international arbitration and to what extend piercing a corporate veil exists in the arbitral case law. The dissertation is divided into several chapters which, although relatively independent interrelate in the covered subject matter with one another as follows: The first chapter's objective is to introduce the reader into the arena of investment protection and to provide him/her with a historic overview and discussion of international law. In doing so, the discussion starts with the customary regime of diplomatic protection - as defined by E. de Vattel1 in 1759. Then, then the discussion moves..