Status of Foreign Investor in Private International Law

ABSTRACT for the final qualifying work by Alexandra Vega Gerasenko on the topic of the study: " Status of a foreign investor in international private law " The graduate qualification work investigates the general theoretical and practical basis of regulation of specifics of the status of a foreign investor as a natural person, legal entity and state corporation in international private law. The purpose of the research is to study the definition of the foreign investor status in the modern context and judicial practice, as well as to identify the peculiarities of the use of protective mechanisms after the introduction of sanctions. The study is relevant in light of Russia's imposition of a number of economic sanctions from 2022, which caused retaliatory measures. This has stimulated interest in legal disputes over investor protection and international investment. The study is innovative in its approach to the definition of foreign investors in national law, proposing to divide them into ‘friendly’ and ‘unfriendly’ and to provide preferential protection for the former. Objectives of the study: to analyze the status of a foreign investor and its protection mechanisms; to study the specifics of the status and protection of foreign investors: individuals, legal entities and state corporations; to determine international standards of investment protection; to analyze economic sanctions against Russia from 2022 and their impact on the investment sphere; to identify ways to protect Russian investors and protect foreign investors under sanctions. The methodological basis of the study is the general scientific dialectical method, as well as private-scientific and special research methods based on it. The study relies on literature from various countries, including the works of well-known experts in the field of international investment regulation, such as Dolzer R., Jean Ho and Schreuer C. Among Russian authors influential are the works of Boguslavsky M.M. and Kadysheva O. В. Also, the study pays special attention to the analysis of international legal treaties, practice of international investment arbitration and sanctions regulation adopted by ‘unfriendly states’. The main results of the study: 1. different aspects of the legal status of a foreign investor depending on the subject were analysed. That is, the criteria that define in general the subject as a foreign investor, as well as the peculiarities of establishing such status in individuals, legal entities and state corporations were identified. 2. As a result of the study of a number of treaties, it is possible to conclude that the main criteria are set out in the ICSID Convention, the Seoul Convention, as well as in the Energy Charter Treaty. 3. It is possible to establish investor status in two ways - subjective and objective. The subjective way involves first of all identifying the investor criteria of the person carrying out investment activities. That is, if the person falls under the definition of an investor, the legal relations are assigned a corresponding status. The objective method is built on the opposite principle, where it is necessary to first determine whether the activity is investment, that is, whether the economic activity falls under the definition of foreign investment. 4. Judicial practice in this case fixes a number of key positions and is one of the key factors in the development of the concept of the legal status of a foreign investor, including, for example, how the Sallini criteria were analyzed. 5. International investment law is a branch that is actively influenced by the foreign policy situation, as one of the main participants in the establishment of investment legal relations are independent subjects of international law - states, which through the introduction of a number of measures can determine the behavior of private investors.