Dutch bilateral investment treaties : a gateway to 'treaty shopping' for investment protection by multinational companies

This SOMO report highlights the until now unexplored role Dutch investment protection policy plays in establishment decisions of multinational companies. The report argues that current Dutch investment policies are used for treaty shopping, allowing for investor–state dispute settlement based on broad-based bilateral investment treaties definitions that pose a danger to policy space and the safeguarding of public goods and interests. Treaty shopping is not only highly problematic from a sustainable development perspective for southern countries, but increasingly for northern states as well.