ABSTRACT
Modern investment treaties have given investors not only substantive rights of investment protection but also procedural rights to bring international claims directly against states that have allegedly violated their substantive rights. Granting investors the right to directly access international investment arbitration is a distinctive feature of international investment law. Such a procedural right of private actors cannot be found in other fields of international economic law. Although this enhances the effective protection of foreign investment in host states, it has also drawn criticism in that foreign investors’ interests have been excessively protected under investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms. In this regard, denial of benefits clauses in investment treaties may restrict the investors’ right of direct access to international investment arbitration. Examining the types of denial of benefits clauses and related arbitral decisions, this chapter explores the limit to investors’ procedural rights in international investment arbitration imposed by the denial of benefits clauses.
