国际投资协定中的最惠国条款研究

【作者】 张宏乐；

【导师】 陈治东；

【作者基本信息】 复旦大学 ， 国际法， 2010， 博士

【摘要】 本文探讨的是国际投资协定中最惠国条款的法律问题。自从二十世纪90年代以来,随着国际投资跨国界流动的不断增长,国际投资协定,尤其是双边投资保护协定数量大量增加。最惠国条款作为国际投资协定中的核心条款之一,对于国际投资的自由化有着非常重要的作用。然而,尽管最惠国条款有久远的发展历史,但在最惠国条款的适用上,当前的国际投资争端中仍然存在很多尚未解决的问题。各国在此问题上并未形成一致的国际实践,各国学者对此问题也未形成较为一致的观点。本文共分七章。第一章为概述,主要介绍最惠国条款在国际法中的起源和发展,对最惠国条款在国际条约中的制度价值作了研究和分析；然后介绍了国际法委员1978年《关于最惠国条款的公约(草案)》的制定情况及一些重要国际组织对该条款的研究,最后对国际法院在有关案例中涉及到最惠国条款的裁决作了介绍和分析。第二章主要介绍国际投资协定的签订情况以及这些投资协定中最惠国条款的发展情况。第三章从国际投资协定中最惠国条款的适用对象、适用范围展开分析,详细介绍了国际投资协定中投资者和投资的定义及其发展趋势；然后又从国际投资仲裁的实践分析近年来争议较多的最惠国条款的适用范围问题。第四章主要对最惠国条款的适用机制展开研究,分析了最惠国条款适用时的参照对象和参照规则,并对最惠国条款在适用时与国家对仲裁的同意之间的法律关系进行了分析。第五章研究了最惠国条款的例外制度,对其例外制度的不同表述、法律性质、适用效果等进行了分析。第六章则对GATS和FTA/RTA中的最惠国条款进行了考察和分析。第七章从上述分析和研究出发,结合中国近年来签订国际投资协定的实践,对中国实践中的有关问题,特别是中美正在谈判中的双边投资协定中的有关法律问题进行了研究,并提出相应的建议。本文认为,最惠国条款从在国际条约中出现到现在,其发展历程说明,在国际社会中还没有形成一致的国际实践,因此,在国际法中尚不存在国际习惯法规则。各国在签订这些条约时最惠国条款表述的千差万别也表明最惠国义务还只是缔约方之间的条约义务。在国际投资协定中,由于协定所包括的事项有其特殊性,且投资协定的权利主体包括缔约方的投资者及其投资,所以最惠国条款在国际投资协定中的适用有其特殊性,这也是本文研究的意义。首先是各个投资协定的权利义务主体不尽相同,各个投资协定对“投资者”及其“投资”的定义都有或多或少的差别,这也说明最惠国条款的适用对象在不同的投资协定中是有区别的。再者,由于各个投资协定中最惠国条款的表述不同,也使得其适用范围存在一定差异。再加上投资保护协定大都包含一个特殊的争端解决机制——投资者—东道国国际仲裁机制,就使得最惠国条款的适用更为复杂。在国际投资仲裁实践中,不同的仲裁庭使用不同的方法对这个问题做出了不同的分析和裁决,各国学者对此也是见仁见智,尚未有统一的认识。由于这些问题的存在,各国对最惠国条款的签订开始变得谨慎,最惠国条款的例外规定呈现增多且细化的趋势。本文还考察了GATS中最惠国条款的适用情况,并对相关案例进行了分析。对于FTA,本文认为,虽然FTA的合法性依据来自于WTO协定,但是FAT协议由于其协议内容的复杂性,其范围远远超过了WTO协定。在不同的章节中有的规定了最惠国条款,有的章节则没有规定最惠国条款。因此,FTA不同章节中的权利义务关系可能存在很多差别。通过对当前国际条约实践和国际投资仲裁实践的研究和分析,结合中国近年来的条约实践和国际投资发展情况,中国需要全面考虑和评估国际投资协定及其最惠国条款对中国经济发展的影响。更多还原

【Abstract】 This dissertation focuses on the research on the Most-favored-nation clause (MFN clause) contained in international investment treaties. Accompanied with the constant increase of international investment flow between countries since the 1990’s, the number of international investment treaties, especially the bilateral investment treaties has also increased substantially. The MFN clause, one of the core clauses in international investment treaties, plays an important role in the process of the liberalization of international investment. Despite of the long history of MFN clause, there still exists many unsolved questions in the application of MNF clause in the settlement of international investment disputes. States have not constituted constant international practice as to such question, and the scholars form different countries also have not reached any common ground.The dissertation consists of seven chapters. In the first chapter author gives a general introduction to the origin and development of MFN clauses in international law, and gives some analysis on the law value of the MFN clause. Then the author introduces the drafting process of the Draft Articles on Most-Favored-Nation Clauses by International Law Commission (ILC) in 1978 and some studies on MFN clauses by other international organizations. At the last part of the chapter, the author studies some of the ICJ cases involving the MFN clauses. In the second chapter the author gives a rough description of development of international treaties and the MFN clauses therein. In the third chapter and forth chapter the author analyses the subjects, application scope and operation system of MFN clauses in international investment treaties. In the fifth chapter the author does some research on the exception rules of MFN clauses, while in the sixth chapter the author studies the MFN clauses in GATS and FTA/RTA. In the last chapter the author researches China’s recent practice on international investment treaties and the MFN clauses therein, and gives suggestions for China’s ongoing international practice. The dissertation holds that the development of MFN clauses in international investment treaties shows that there is no constant practice in international society, so there is no customary international law for MFN clauses. The different wording of MFN clauses in international treaties also indicates that the MFN treatment obligation is just a kind of treaty obligation between contracting parties.Because of the particularity of the subjects and objects in such treaties, the application of MFN clauses in international investment treaties is different from its application in other treaties or conventions, which is the focus and significance of this dissertation. Firstly, there are many differences between the definitions of "investors" and "investment" in different treaties, which indicates the application objects of MFN clauses in different treaties, is not always the same. Secondly, because of the different wording of MFN clauses in different treaties, the application scope of MFN clauses varies accordingly. And the investor-state disputes settlement system, which is included in almost all BITs, makes the application of MFN clauses in international investment treaties more complicated. In recent international investment arbitrations, different tribunals tried different ways to analyze such questions and gave their individual awards. The scholars around the world also do not have reached common conclusion for this question. For the problems mentioned above, states becomes prudent to the MFN clauses, and the appearance of MFN exception becomes common in the international investment treaties, which shows the concerns to such subjects from contracting parties. The dissertation also looks into the application of MFN clause in GATS and FTA/RTA. As to FTA, the dissertation holds that, though the legal base of FTA/RTA derives from WTO Agreement, the scope of FTA/RTA goes far beyond WTO Agreement. Some of the chapters in FAT/RTA have MFN clauses while other chapters do not. Therefore, the rights and obligations in different parts of FTA/RTA maybe differs a lot.After the research of international treaties practice and international investment case study, and also after some analysis of China’s recent BIT practice and China’s development of importing and exporting investment, the author suggests that China should re-evaluate the influence of international investment treaties and the MFN clauses herein to China’s economic development.更多还原