INTRODUCTION

Investment has traditionally been regulated at the international level, through bilateral investment treaties (BITs). Each of these instruments contained its own set of rules and dispute settlement procedures relating to investment protection. Such treaties commonly contained provisions relating to the fair and equitable treatment of investments, as well as other substantive standards of protection. Even though there were similarities in these BITs that had been concluded by states, there was no uniform practice.

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the diversity in the standards of protection offered by existing BITs, concluded between EU Member States and Korea, and to consider the opportunities and challenges involved in concluding a comprehensive EU-Korea investment agreement, in order to establish a level playing field for investors.

The first part of the paper compares and contrasts the content of existing BITs, concluded between EU Member States and Korea. This part will show that although almost all of the BITs contain some similar standards of protection, there are important divergences, in both the scope of protection and the mechanisms for dispute settlement. Thus, under the existing legal framework, the degree of protection enjoyed by an investor depends, to some extent, on the terms of the applicable treaty involved, if, indeed, there is one. It follows that a level playing field can only be established by action taken at the EU level.