Investor rights and well-being remarks on the interpretation of investment treaties in light of other rights

The question of interpreting international agreements in light of other competing principles and obligations has, over the last two decades, been drawn into and included within the debate over the fragmentation of international law. However, some features of the two elements here at stake – investment agreements and competing regulations – place the subject on a different ground from these past discussions. This paper will not focus only on the systemic interpretation of investment treaties and other international law rules, but it will go through the different ways and techniques proposed by parties to disputes and arbitral tribunals to consider investment treaties and other concerns – more precisely, human and environmental rights: the integration of treaties with domestic regulations; the interpretation of investment agreements in light of other international rules; the application of investor rights and other international rules and regulations; the non-application of investment treaties conflicting with ius cogens; and finally the re-affirmation of a domestic sphere of autonomy in which states are free to introduce reasonable new regulations of general, public interest.