THE CONCEPT AND STATUS OF THE INVESTOR IN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW

Abstract

International investment law, as branch of public international law, makes
investors its main beneficiaries. Adoption of the correct definition of an investor
in investment treaties is therefore one of the most important and basic elements
of their content. The purpose of this article is to present the theoretical and practical problems related to a natural person and a legal person and then to present
the conditions that must be met for recognition of these entities as investors.
Only in such case investors may demand protection treaty and claim against the
host state.
The article describes how the matter of nationality of a natural person developed in domestic law and then in international investment law. The article
describes the criteria for determining the nationality of legal persons, as nowadays the different sources of origin of the capital make it difficult to undoubtedly specify the nationality of legal persons. Therefore, the article analyses the
investor’s definition included in international investment law contained in the
multilateral treaties, regional treaties, as well as bilateral investment treaties for
the promotion and protection of the investment.
In the article the author undertakes to present differences as to the requirements which must be met by an investor who is a natural person and a legal
person, which are contained in the Washington Convention on the Settlement
of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States from 1965.
The work presents also the awards of international arbitration courts that dealt
with the problems of the concept of the investor and the protection treaty