A Global Public Good? An Empirical Perspective on International Investment Law and Arbitration

Abstract

The relationship between the concepts of international investment law and global public goods poses two essential challenges. The first is whether the international investment regime by design is a global public good. The second is whether the regime delivers benefits that are public and global in nature. This chapter addresses these two challenges through a largely empirical perspective. Drawing on three datasets, the authors seek to move beyond the current theorizing in the literature on this theme and base their findings on a comprehensive de jure and de facto analysis. After having discussed the idea of global public goods, they find that the regime high levels of de facto exclusion and in places rivalry, together with an uneven distribution of benefits, such that the international investment regime only partly fits the requirements for a global public good.