The Violence of International Investment Law

Abstract :  

“Climate apartheid” describes a world where the rich insulate themselves from the most catastrophic effects of climate change, while racialized and formerly colonized people bear its worst consequences. While many analyses of climate apartheid discuss the many forms of legal and extra-legal violence mobilized to maintain it, one form of violence is often omitted – the violence of international investment law. International investment law consists of treaties between the state hosting foreign investment (often in the Global South) and the home state of the investor (often in the Global North). These investment treaties protect the interests of foreign investors by allowing them to bypass the domestic legal system and seek compensation for lost profits in secretive arbitration proceedings whenever states implement measures to protect human rights and the environment (such as restrictions on oil drilling). The fossil fuel and mining industries have weaponized these treaties to undermine efforts to mitigate climate change, winning astronomical arbitration awards. Even the threat of arbitration is often sufficient to chill government action. The structural violence of pollution generates conflicts with local communities, leading to militarized violence by state and private security forces to repress resistance. Investment tribunals have used “full protection and security” clauses in investment agreements to demand that states use repressive violence to protect foreign investments.  

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