The Emerging Acknowledgment of the Human Right to Water in International Investment Arbitration

Water is the most essential natural resource on earth for human life and its sustainability. Although safe, clean drinking water is an internationally recognized human right necessary for the fulfillment of other human rights, water is also a profitable commodity. In the last decades, the privatization of water supply services triggered a lively debate concerning the protection of the human right to water and the resulting obligations of States with regard to it. Privatization of water facilities was chosen in countries, especially the developing ones, where the public water supply was struggling to ensure water for all. However, many of these privatization processes failed and foreign investors have frequently initiated investment arbitrations generally granted by the majority of investment agreements such as BITs. In these disputes, arbitral tribunals have dealt with the different interests at stake, namely the rights of the foreign investor on the one hand and the regulatory power of the host state, including the protection of human rights, on the other. Against this background, the present dissertation explores the different issues surrounding the emerging acknowledgment of the human right to water-based arguments in investment disputes arising out of the failure of water privatization contracts between the foreign investor and the state receiving the investment (host state). In light of this, the present contribution further analyses the interaction between international investment law and human rights law.