I haven't read any of the submissions or the opinion in the Yukos investment arbitration, which resulted in the biggest award ever -- $50 billion! -- and has been making headlines in the past week. But from the articles about the case, what struck me is that the claimaints were mostly Russians. OK, technically, their ownership stake was held through a couple foreign companies, which is what gave them access to the Energy Charter Treaty. But in reality, what we have here is some Russians suing Russia in an international tribunal.
If I'm right about that, and please feel free to correct me if I'm not, is this really a foreign investment dispute at all? Or is it better thought of as outsourcing of constitutional law to an international court?
And how are the traditional arguments about "promoting" or "protecting" foreign investment affected by the application of these rules to domestic investors?
