A phenomenon originally known in the field of international tax matters, 1 treaty shopping (sometimes called treaty or nationality planning 2 ) has also gained ground in investment arbitration. It is perceived as investors’ reaction to situations when the host State of their current or potential investment and the State of their nationality either do not have any investment protection treaty or have a treaty with only dissatisfying provisions. In either scenario, investors may seek to route their investment through a third State in order to secure (or shop) the most advantageous procedural or substantive protection of a treaty, usually by altering their nationality or by creating specific investment vehicles. 3
Feldman, M., Setting Limits on Corporate Nationality Planning in Investment Treaty Arbitration, ICSID Review: Foreign Investment Law Journal, Vol. 27, No 2, 2012, pp. 281-302.
Zuleta, E., Saldarriaga, A., and Vohryzek-Griest, A., Treaty Planning: Current Trends in International Investment Disputes that Impact Foreign Investment Decisions and Treaty Drafting, in Fernández-Ballesteros, M.A. and Arias, D. (eds.), Liber Amicorum Bernardo Cremades, 2010, p. 1207.
