VI. Implications of the Development of International Law upon the Protection of Foreign Investors and Investments from the Perspective of Developing States

International investment law has developed in parallel with the expansion of European powers to Asia as early as the 17th century. European powers used their military force to protect their subjects operating in Asia.1 A Eurocentric version of international law has been useful in the encounter of European entrepreneurs with indigenous peoples in Asia and America. Many mixed commissions in the 19th century were set up to deal with claims based on the injuries of British subjects in the newly independent State of the United States of America.2 In the various kinds of peace treaties with China, the nationals of foreign powers were protected in the same way as third party foreign powers were. The law of State responsibility was developed in light of the treatment of foreign nationals by host States. The friendship, commerce and navigation (fcn) treaties were very common in the 19th century in Asia when host States in