Agreements to promote and protect foreign investment: An approximation to the incidence of constitutional jurisprudence in its structuring and interpretation

Abstract

Agreements for the promotion and protection of foreign investment are seen to constitute, according to current doctrine, a fundamental mechanism for the attraction of foreign investment. Such agreements seek to establish a system of stable regulation directed towards the elimination of political risks to which their investments may be exposed. This article explores the various constitutional precedents in relation to such agreements and to assess whether those precedents affect the stability that the agreements are held out to provide. From a methodological point of view, this work is oriented towards determining whether the process of constitutionalizing  the law in general, and commercial law in particular, reaches so far as to affect the operation  of international  economic activity.