Document Type : Article
Author
Ph.D in International Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Many investment host-states, invoking the spread of the coronavirus and the need to combat Covid-19, have taken over the assets of private companies, forced them to make certain goods, intervened in their pricing , stopped their products, prevented export of their products and forced some to close their activities. In some cases, host-states may in fact expropriate the foreign investments for political, social, and economic reasons, such as reducing social pressures, increasing the possibility of success in elections, and acquiring low-cost, profitable investments, but invoke the need to combat the pandemics in order to mislead the arbitral tribunals. Since the host state have frequently sought to justify non-compliance with their treaty obligations by resorting to crises such as the outbreak of Covid-19, this article, referring to the investment treaties, doctrine and arbitration practices, and in order to strike a balance between interests of the investor and the host-state, in the first part, discusses the possibility, manner and arguments for filing a claim for expropriation by foreign investors by invoking the host-state measures in the situation of outbreak of pandemics including Covid-19, and in the second part, investigates the means of compensation for expropriation in the above-mentioned claims.
Keywords
English
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