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InvSecArb

Analysis and commentary from the CELIS network.

Investment security arbitration

10 articles

Investment Screening Between Discretion and Arbitrariness – Charting the Borderlands

Foreign investment screening regimes are built on discretion. Screening decisions often turn on assessments of open-ended lists of risks to ‘national security’ – an inherently ambiguous concept (J Benton Heath 2022, p. 295), which is constantly evolving as…

10 June 2026

Disclosure and Confidentiality in Investment Screening

In order to assess risks posed by foreign direct investments to national security, authorities must understand not only the target business, but also the investor, its ownership structure, sources of financing, governance arrangements, and potential foreign…

4 June 2026

Legal Standards, Evidentiary Threshold, Transparency and Due Process in the Context of Investment Screening and Investment Disputes

Security assessments of a prospective investment necessarily involve an assessment of future contingencies; the evidentiary threshold cannot therefore be set unduly high. The deciding body must collect classified and secret information from its security…

2 June 2026

Fair and Equitable Investment Screening

With the widespread adoption of investment screening by Western states, there is increasing evidence as to the ways in which this tool of economic security is implemented. Investment screening accommodates an important exception to open market principles: the…

28 May 2026

Between Deadlines and Discretion: Timely Decision-Making in Investment Screening

Investment screening involves a procedurally layered process involving notification, jurisdictional assessment, inter-agency consultation, risk analysis, possible mitigation negotiations, and final clearance or prohibition. In this setting, time is not a…

26 May 2026

German Administrative Courts Take the Plunge – First Rulings on German Investment Screening Procedures and their Time Frame

In light of the prevailing tense global geopolitical climate, investments are no longer regarded exclusively as catalysts for growth and innovation, but instead as potential sources of security risk. As a key instrument for safeguarding national security as…

26 May 2026

Shielding Foreign Investment Screening from Challenge under Investment Treaties

This post considers how States can design international investment agreements (“IIAs”) to prevent foreign investment screening measures from being subject to successful challenge under such treaties. It will demonstrate that there are a wide variety of…

21 May 2026

Post-Establishment Phase: FDI Screening Decisions and the Treatment of Retroactive Measures in Investment Arbitration

Decisions concerning the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) are often taken at the post-establishment phase—after the foreign investor already has made an investment in the host State—but may have an effect on the validity of the investor’s…

19 May 2026

Constraints on the State’s Right to Screen Foreign Investments Prior to Market Entry

As a starting point, a State enjoys broad authority to regulate the admission of foreign investment into its territory, including by reviewing, conditioning, or prohibiting a contemplated transaction before it is implemented. This can be motivated by national…

14 May 2026

Introducing the CELIS–Arnold & Porter Initiative on Investment Security x Investment Arbitration

Most international rules governing foreign investment still breathe the air of the liberal, if not neoliberal era in which they were created. They place particular emphasis on the promotion and protection of foreign-owned property and often enable foreign…

12 May 2026