The Most Favoured Nation Clause in BITs as a Basis for Jurisdiction in Foreign Investor-Host State Arbitration

The article concerns the practice of claimants in investment arbitration to invoke the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) clause contained in the applicable Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) in order to overcome the respondent State''s objection to jurisdiction based on the non-compliance with the BIT provisions concerning dispute settlement procedures. The analysis of the case law available so far supports the opinion that the question of the extension to procedural matters of the MFN treatment cannot be decided once and for all according to general theories, but has to be addressed on a case-by-case basis through a proper interpretation of the relevant MFN clause.