INDIRECT EXPROPRIATION IN ROMANIAN BITs

Direct expropriations and nationalizations are rare nowadays, but the problem of indirect expropriation is far from being resolved. International legal texts provide very general and brief provisions regarding this issue. Usually, bilateral investment treaties contain general and brief provisions on indirect expropriation. The line between the concept of indirect expropriation and non-compensable regulatory governmental measures has not been systematically articulated. In the last years, the expropriation claims arising out of regulatory measures have attracted the public attention like no other issue in international investment law. However, not all state measures which interfere with properties amount to expropriation. Moreover, it was suggested in the doctrine that the focus of debate in this area of law has shifted from the standard of compensation to the definition of expropriation. The delimitation is so delicate that the problem is not anymore if the compensation awarded was appropriate, but if there was an expropriation at all. Since foreign investors’ protection from uncompensated expropriations traditionally has been one of the main guarantees found in international investment agreements, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the indirect expropriation provisions in the most representative BITs concluded by Romania.