Obligations of International Assistance and Cooperation in the Context of Investment Law

This Chapter considers states’ obligations to provide international assistance and cooperation for the protection of human rights in the context of international investment agreements. Investment agreements provide substantive protections to foreign investors, primarily businesses, when they undertake commercial investments outside their state of nationality. Explicit conflicts between investment law and human rights law remain rare, but when they arise, the robust enforcement of investment agreements can effectively constrain states’ ability to respect, protect, and fulfil their human rights law obligations. This Chapter considers broadly states’ extraterritorial obligations to provide international assistance and cooperation as is found in Article 2(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. It outlines the impact investment law has on human rights law before analysing the responsibility of states to provide international assistance and cooperation for the purpose of addressing those impacts. Obligations are identified for both states that are negotiating new international investment agreements as well as for third-party states. The recognition of extraterritorial obligations on third-party states is novel and has the potential to alter the existing relationship between investment law and human rights. The Chapter concludes by establishing a research agenda on states’ international assistance and cooperation obligations in the context of investment law.