Introduction

Stabilisation (or "freezing") clauses meant to restrain a government from subsequently abrogating or otherwise intervening by exercise of state powers in investment agreements concluded with foreign companies have been amply discussed by international lawyers in the 1970s and early 1980s. Much of the discussion was prompted by the large-scale nationalisations and renegotiations of investment agreements of long standing. These, by now historical, events have triggered a series of arbitral awards which had to judge the relative strength of stabilisation clauses in investment ...