OREANDA-NEWS. August 27, 2013. SORAINEN Latvia of counsel Martins Paparinskis recently released a book The International Minimum Standard and Fair and Equitable Treatment published by Oxford University Press.

This week a discussion of the book is hosted by the European Journal of International Law. His monograph and thoughts on the topic will be subjected to careful scrutiny by Sir Frank Berman (Oxford), Federico Ortino (King’s College, London), and Anthea Roberts (Columbia Law School/London School of Economics).

Content of the book:

an original perspective on one of the most important and controversial aspects of investment protection law;

comprehensive analysis of the relationship between the international minimum standard and fair and equitable treatment;

an explanation of the content and scope of the international minimum standard with reference to a comparative analysis of human rights law.

This monograph engages in a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between the international minimum standard and fair and equitable treatment. It provides an original argument about the historical development of the international standard, a normative rationale for reading it into the treaty rules of fair and equitable treatment, and a coherent methodology for establishing the content of this standard.

The first part of this book untangles the history of both the international minimum standard and fair and equitable treatment. The second part addresses the normative framework within which the contemporary debate takes place. After an exhaustive review of all relevant sources, it is argued that the most persuasive reading of fair and equitable treatment is that it always makes a reference to customary law. The third part of the book builds on the historical analysis and the normative framework, explaining the content of the contemporary standard by careful comparative human rights analysis.

Martins is currently a junior research fellow at Merton College, Oxford. He will be taking up a lectureship at University College London in the coming academic year. In addition to this book, he has published a number of articles and book chapters on the law of foreign investment protection with much of his work showing how that law interacts with general principles of international law. Last year he compiled Basic Documents on International Investment Protection (Hart).