Highlights

The scope of investment agreements is delimited primarily through definitions of key terms, such as "investment" and "investor". By themselves, and in conjunction with the operative provisions, these definitions may play one or both of two critical functions in an agreement: they identify those assets to which the treaty applies; and they may determine the nature of the obligations created by the treaty. The terms "investment" and "investor" are the principal focus of this paper. The discussion considers both how these terms have been defined in existing investment agreements and how these definitional provisions interact with key operative provisions of investment agreements.