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34 Sing. L. Rev. 139 (2016)
The Territoriality Requirement in Investment Treaties: A Constraint on Jurisdictional Expansionism

handle is hein.journals/singlrev34 and id is 157 raw text is: 

Singapore Law Review
(2016) 34 Sing L Rev



           THE TERRITORIALITY REQUIREMENT IN

       INVESTMENT TREATIES: A CONSTRAINT ON

               JURISDICTIONAL EXPANSIONISM




                          CHRISTOPHER R ZHENG*

 Many investment treaties contain a jurisdictional requirement that investments be
 made 'in the territory' of the host state. This reflects the intentions of states parties that
 protection should only be given to investments which are subject to the host state's
 territorial prescriptive and  enforcement jurisdiction. However, investors have
 increasingly sought to initiate investor-state arbitrations for disputes that may fall
 beyond the intended treaty framework. This article examines arbitral awards which
 have applied the territoriality requirement and articulates a distinctive approach to
 determining territoriality, grounded in the consent of states parties to investment
 treaties. It suggests that the territoriality requirement could play a significant role in
 preventing the over-expansion  of subject-matter jurisdiction in investor-state
 arbitrations.



                           I.   INTRODUCTION


    Many bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, including the Energy
 Charter Treaty [ECT]1 and Chapter Eleven of the North American Free Trade



 * LL.B. candidate at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore; LL.M. candidate
 at the School of Law, New York University. I am immensely grateful for the guidance
 provided by Dr Jean Ho, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of
 Singapore. All errors and omissions herein remain my own.
 1 Energy Charter Treaty, 17 December 1994, 2080 UNTS 95, 34 ILM 360 (entered into
 force 16 April 1998).

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