Novas tendências na prática do tratado do direito internacional do investimento: onde fica a América Latina?
| Autor | Mara Valenti |
| Páginas | 9-26 |
Recebido em: 10/03/2018
Revisado em: 30/06/2018
Aprovado em: 10/07/2018
http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2177-7055.2018v39n79p9
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New Trends in International Investment Law
Treaty Practice: where does Latin America stand?
Novas Tendências na Prática do Tratado do Direito Internacional do
Investimento: onde fica a América Latina?
Mara Valenti1
1 Università degli Studi di Milano – Milão, Itália.
Abstract: Latin-American countries’ attitude
towards international investment law has
undergone an evolution. During the 90s,
those countries stipulated many Bilateral
Investment Treaties (BITs), subscribed to
the Washington Convention, and, recently,
they have been up front in the process
of reconsideration regarging the legal
system revolving around the BITs. Their
recent negotiating practices represent good
examples of a new generation of investment
treaties. In particular, a glance at the main
clauses of the MERCOSUR Protocol will
reveal the member States’ intent to severely
limit the extent of the treatment and the
protection to be granted to foreign investors.
Keywords: Foreign Investments. Negotiating
Practice. Mercosur.
Resumo: Os posicionamentos dos países lati-
no-americanos no que se refere a regulações de
investimentos internacionais sofreram uma re-
cente revolução. Durante os anos de 1990, esses
países assinaram diversos Tratados Bilaterais de
Investimentos (TBIs), tornaram-se signatários
da Convenção de Washington e, atualmente,
tomam frente em um processo de reanálise do
sistema legal que permeia os TBIs. Suas recen-
tes práticas de negociação são bons exemplos
do surgimento de uma nova geração de tratados
de investimentos. Nesse sentido, a análise das
cláusulas principais do Protocolo do Mercosul
revela a intenção de fortemente limitar a exten-
são de tratamento e de proteção garantida a in-
vestidores estrangeiros.
Palavras-chave: Investimentos Estrangeiros.
Negociação. Mercosul.
10 Seqüência (Florianópolis), n. 79, p. 9-26, ago. 2018
New Trends in International Investment Law Treaty Practice: where does Latin America stand?
1 The Parabola
Latin-American countries’ attitude towards international investment
law can be illustrated as a line, which is similar to a parabola.
In the past, such countries kept a skeptical approach to the rules
concerning the treatment and the protection of foreigners and their
investments. The “Calvo doctrine” originated here and for a long time
they maintained that no international customary standard of treatment for
foreign investors existed. According to the Calvo doctrine, the activities
carried out by foreign investors were to be regulated only by domestic
legislation. They could not expect a different or better treatment than
domestic investors. Any dispute between the foreign investor and the host
State was to be settled by domestic tribunals, which would only apply
domestic legislation.
When, in the 60s most countries began to stipulate bilateral
investment treaties (BITs) and ratified the Washington Convention
establishing the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID), Latin-American countries did not follow that trend.
Latin-American countries left their reticence during the 90s, when
they stipulated many BITs and subscribed to the ICSID Convention
(apart from Brazil that has never concluded any BIT, despite having
negotiated some of them over the years). This change in attitude was
due to their desire to attract the foreign investments necessary to finance
some measures of economic policy. In particular, foreign capital was
badly needed in the context of the privatization of important sectors of
the domestic market. Undertaking by treaty to grant to foreign investors
a favourable treatment and an enhanced protection in case of non-
commercial risk seemed to be the best way to attain the purpose.
In this same period, the legal system revolving around BITs became
very successful since foreign investors all over the world became fully
aware of their potential. One must consider that such treaties grant to
foreign investors not only substantial benefits, with regard to the treatment
and the protection of their activities on the territory of the host contracting
State, but also the opportunity to challenge, before an international
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