The Effectiveness Dilemmas and Coordination Paths of Environmental Provisions in International Financial Investment——From the Perspective of Bilateral Investment Treaties

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the imbalance between global international investment and environmental protection and the difficulties in applying and enforcing environmental provisions in Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), this paper studies the effectiveness dilemmas and coordination paths of environmental provisions in international financial investment from the perspective of BITs, aiming to resolve the aforementioned application and enforcement difficulties and provide theoretical and practical references for constructing an international investment order that balances investment protection and ecological conservation. By systematically sorting out three types of core conflicts between international financial investment and environmental law, and in-depth analyzing the effectiveness problems and underlying causes of environmental provisions in BITs in terms of content, enforcement and conclusion, the paper clarifies that the core dilemmas of the effectiveness of environmental provisions lie in the ambiguity of content, defects in the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism and interest divergences between developed and developing countries. It further proposes three solutions, namely the refinement of provisions, the professionalization of dispute settlement and the normalization of international cooperation, for the improvement of environmental provisions in BITs, and offers optimized suggestions for China’s participation in the formulation of global investment and environmental rules. This research provides new ideas for achieving the dual goals of sustainable investment and ecological protection and improving the overall legal framework for international investment and the environment.