Danelyan, A.A. Legal issues concerning forcible expropriation of foreign property and foreign investments in the modern international law

Abstract: The forcible expropriation of foreign property and foreign investments may involve the forms of nationalization, expropriation, requisition, confiscation, etc. The author evaluates them based upon the examples from the legislations of various states as well as arbitration judicial practice. He states that both international and national law lack clear definitions of legal elements of these terms However, these terms are united by the common legal contents, which provides that a person involved in investment activities in a foreign states loses his capitals and dividends in a forceful way. In the latest decades the indirect forms of nationalization and expropriation became the most dangerous forms of expropriation of property from foreign investors, since it stands for hidden, step-by-step intrusion into the proprietary title, lowering the value of an investment. Currently there is a tendency for the growth of investment disputes due to the forcible expropriation of foreign investments in the international institutional arbitration courts and the ad hoc arbitrations, when the respondents are often the Latin American states and the CIS states.

Keywords: