This book analyzes the tension between the host state's commitment to provide regulatory
stability for foreign investors - which is a tool for attracting FDI and generating economic
growth - and its evolving non-economic commitments towards its citizens with regard to
environmental protection and social welfare. The main thesis is that the 'stabilization clause
regulatory power antinomy ' as it appears in many cases contradicts the content and rationale
of sustainable development a concept that is increasingly prevalent in national and
international law and which aims at the integration and balancing of economic environmental
and social development. To reconcile this antinomy at the decision-making and dispute
settlement levels the book employs a 'constructive sustainable development approach ' which is
based on the integration and reconciliation imperatives of the concept of sustainable
development as well as on the application of principles of law such as non-discrimination
public purpose due process proportionality and more generally good governance and rule of
law. It subsequently re-conceptualizes stabilization clauses in terms of their design (ex-ante)
and interpretation (ex-post) yielding stability to the benefit of foreign investors while
also mitigating their negative effects on the host state's power to regulate.
