The Legal Regime Governing the Admission and Protection of Investments under Bilateral and Multilateral Agreements

The article analyses the legal regime governing the admission and protection of investments under bilateral and multilateral international agreements, focusing on the systemic relationship between substantive safeguards and the conditions for their applicability. Particular attention is paid to treaty definitions of “investor” and “investment” as core jurisdictional and scope-determining criteria, as well as to the relevance of legality requirements under the host State’s law for access to international protection mechanisms. The discussion highlights legal certainty, the predictability of official practice, and standards of good faith as determinants of the boundaries of treaty protection, including the impermissibility of abuse of rights in the use of procedural avenues. The study emphasises that coherence of treaty language and procedural design is essential for the stability of the protection regime and for the effective settlement of investor–State disputes.