The UNESCO World Heritage Convention in International Investment Arbitration

Ratified by 194 countries, the World Heritage Convention is one of the best-known treaty instruments in the general culture and one with the greatest impact on local realities as well as a central element of international cultural heritage law. Increasingly the object of interpretation in national and international judgments, the 1972 UNESCO Convention does not fail to be a benchmark also in international investment arbitration, and it is to this jurisprudence that the present chapter is dedicated. The awards on the relation between investment protection and world heritage protection have been selected and considered. The analysis of such international investment arbitration jurisprudence reveals a constantly growing attention by the adjudicators to the respect of sites of outstanding universal value. This involves the duty, for the investor, before planning and starting his/her business, to get the necessary information on the national and international rules disciplining the land and assets where a UNESCO site is present. Only a diligent and responsible investor can thus be protected by the rules of international investment law when his/her investment also concerns a site having an exceptional value transcending national borders.