Tratamiento de la doble nacionalidad en el arbitraje inversor-Estado y en los tratados bilaterales de inversión suscritos por Chile (1991-2023)

Felipe Galvez Torres

doi:10.5354/0719-7462.2025.78526

Treatment of dual nationality in investor-state arbitration and in bilateral investment treaties signed by Chile (1991-2023)

Authors

Felipe Galvez Torres Investigador Independiente https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9101-514X

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Abstract

In investor-state arbitration, foreign investors bring claims directly against the host state of the investment. In practice, investors must prove the nationality of their home state to benefit from the investment treaty signed between that state and the host state. However, this can become complex in cases where the investor has dual nationality, one of which is related to the host state. The problem with this situation is that the investor can invoke his or her foreign nationality to bring international proceedings against the state, but the last one argues objects to the arbitrator’s jurisdiction because he or she is also a national of his or her own state. Precisely problem is that the most bilateral investment treaties (BITs) omit a rule for binationals, leaving the enforceability of the invoked nationality suspended. In other words, there is a lack of a criterion that allows arbitrators to include o exclude the binational from the scope of the BIT. In this sense, arbitral practice has generated a set of inconsistent awards, which affects the legal certainty of the parties. This article explores two alternatives for this fluctuating treatment of dual nationality cases, based on the analogy between Chilean treaties and the incorporation of a hypothesis in the investor nationality clauses. To this end, the BITs signed by Chile (1991-2023) were reviewed, which allowed for the identification of the standard adopted for these definitions. Arbitral awards issued in the last five years were studied to draw conclusions about how arbitral practice treats investor definitions at the international level.

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