The "Baby Boom" of Treaty-Based Arbitrations and the Jurisdiction of ICSID Tribunals: Shareholders as "Investors" and Jurisdiction Ratione Temporis

Abstract

The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 4 : 19–59, 2005 © 2005 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. THE “BABY BOOM” OF TREATY-BASED ARBITRATIONS AND THE JURISDICTION OF ICSID TRIBUNALS: SHAREHOLDERS AS “INVESTORS” AND JURISDICTION RATIONE TEMPORIS S TANIMIR A. A LEXANDROV * I. I NTRODUCTION The rapid increase in the number of international arbitrations between foreign investors and host governments in recent years has been the subject of much discussion, with good reason: the statistics are staggering. According to a recent UNCTAD study, the total number of investor-state arbitrations brought under bilateral investment treaties (BITs), regional