Laryea, Emmanuel --- "Evolution of International Investment Law and Implications for Africa" [2011] ELECD 410; in Botchway, N. Francis (ed), "Natural Resource Investment and Africa’s Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Natural Resource Investment and Africa’s Development

Editor(s): Botchway, N. Francis

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446793

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Evolution of International Investment Law and Implications for Africa

Author(s): Laryea, Emmanuel

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

9. Evolution of international
investment law and implications
for Africa
Emmanuel Laryea

1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the norms, rules and practices of international
investment law relating to resources and their implications for Africa. The
chapter outlines the development of international foreign investment law
and principles to its current state, examining practices, institutions and
factors that have shaped the law through its contours. It finds that there
is not as yet a multilateral investment agreement or treaty that governs
foreign investments. The current law is drawn from a few principles of cus-
tomary international law and from bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and
their application and interpretation through cases. African States are, put
together (though vastly variable individually), parties to hundreds of BITs
(together with investor­State contracts) that confer on foreign investors a
high degree of protections and concessions that impact on the exploitation
of their resources and economic development.
The chapter starts by discussing in brief the early norms of international
investment law, challenges to those early norms and consequent diver-
gence. It goes on to discuss attempts at the international level to formu-
late internationally accepted principles, and difficulties encountered. The
chapter then outlines some of the core principles in international invest-
ment law, and concludes with some observations.


2 EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT
LAW

The body of law now commonly described as international investment
law, or international law of foreign investment as some may describe
it,1 evolved from public international law.2 Thus the nature, scope,

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