Authors: Ko-Yung Tung** and Rafael Cox-Alomar***
Published: March 2008
Description: China is undoubtedly moving in a new direction, and its ever more intense investment agenda confirms it. China’s ratification of a host of new generation Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”), mostly signed at the beginning of the 21st century, constitutes an unequivocal signal that it is plodding along a new road. The recently ratified Chinese BITs with the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Bosnia Herzegovina, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, inter alia, are emblematic of the new scenario. These new BITs have considerably expanded the universe of disputes that can now be submitted to international arbitration, including purely contractual claims if seen in light of the umbrella clauses…
*Arbitral & Judicial Decisions
**Ko-Yung Tung, former Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank and former Secretary General of ICSID, is currently Senior Counsel at Morrison & Foerster LLP in New York. He holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
***Rafael Cox-Alomar is currently an associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP in London. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford (Marshall Scholar) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.