Arbitration of Disputes Related to National Security Screening of Foreign Investments

Author

Dr. Jens Hillebrand Pohl, FRGS (Helsinki Geoeconomics School, Finland)

ISBN: 9783032263414

Published: July 2026

Format: Hardcover

Language: English

Publisher: Springer (European Yearbook of International Economic Law, Vol. 50)

Description

Arbitration of Disputes Related to National Security Screening of Foreign Investments examines a fast-growing category of investor-state disputes: claims arising when a host state blocks, unwinds, or conditions a foreign investment on national security grounds. Dr. Jens Hillebrand Pohl sets these disputes at the intersection of international investment law, state sovereignty, and the geopolitics of critical infrastructure and sensitive technology, tracing how arbitral tribunals have handled the resulting tension between investor protection and the state's right to regulate.

The volume works through the doctrinal building blocks tribunals actually rely on — security exceptions, the customary necessity defense, and jurisdictional threshold questions raised by screening decisions — before turning to concrete proposals for how investment treaties could be redesigned to accommodate legitimate security review without hollowing out investor protection.

Published as investment-screening regimes tighten across the United States, the European Union, and Asia-Pacific economies, the book gives arbitration counsel and government officials a single reference for a dispute category that is becoming a standard feature of investor-state practice rather than an outlier.

Key Features

• Analyzes how arbitral tribunals adjudicate disputes triggered by national-security-based investment screening, including CFIUS-style reviews and the EU Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regulation
• Maps the doctrinal treatment of security exceptions and necessity defenses across the leading investor-state arbitration awards
• Proposes concrete treaty-drafting reforms to reconcile investment protection standards with legitimate national security screening
• Assists investment arbitration counsel in structuring jurisdictional and merits arguments in security-screening disputes
• Supports in-house counsel at multinational companies in assessing exposure when a cross-border transaction is blocked or unwound on national security grounds

Coverage

Investment treaties and the challenge of so-called weaponized investments; national security as subject matter of investment arbitration; investment screening and jurisdiction under investment treaties; national-security defenses and treaty exceptions; investment screening and the state's right to regulate.

About the Authors

Dr. Jens Hillebrand Pohl, FRGS, is affiliated with the Helsinki Geoeconomics School in Finland, where his work examines the interaction between international economic law, state sovereignty, and geopolitical risk in cross-border investment.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Investment Treaties and the Challenge of Weaponized Investments
• 3. National Security as Subject Matter of Investment Arbitration
• 4. Investment Screening and Jurisdiction Under Investment Treaties
• 5. National Security-Related Defences and Treaty Exceptions
• 6. Investment Screening and the Right to Regulate Investments
• 7. Conclusion

Why buy this book?

Foreign direct investment screening has moved from a niche compliance issue to a routine source of investor-state disputes, as governments in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific tighten review of transactions touching critical infrastructure and sensitive technology. This is the first monograph to work through the arbitral case law and treaty doctrine on security screening in a single volume, making it a timely acquisition for arbitration practice groups, government trade and investment-screening bodies, and international economic law collections.

Keywords

foreign direct investment screening, national security exceptions, investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, CFIUS, EU FDI screening regulation, investment arbitration 2026, geoeconomics

Target Audience

investment arbitration practitioners, government trade and investment-screening officials, in-house counsel at multinational corporations, international economic law academics, law libraries

Genre

International Investment Law, Arbitration, International Economic Law

Q&A

Can a country block a foreign investment on national security grounds without breaching its investment treaty obligations?
Whether a security-based screening decision breaches an investment treaty depends on the specific security exception or necessity defense the state can invoke and how a tribunal weighs the state's right to regulate against investor protection standards, a question this book examines through the leading arbitral awards.

How do arbitral tribunals evaluate national-security defenses like CFIUS reviews or the EU FDI Screening Regulation in ISDS cases?
Tribunals typically assess whether the screening measure falls within a treaty's security exception or meets the customary necessity threshold, and the book traces how this analysis has been applied to CFIUS-style reviews and comparable regimes.

What is the difference between a security exception clause and a general necessity defense in investment treaties?
A security exception is a treaty-specific carve-out negotiated by the parties, while the necessity defense is a customary international law standard available even absent an express treaty clause; the book distinguishes their scope, thresholds, and how tribunals have applied each.

How might investment treaties be redesigned to balance security screening with investor protection?
The book proposes specific treaty-drafting reforms intended to give states clearer authority to screen investments on security grounds while preserving predictable protection standards for investors.

Where can I buy Arbitration of Disputes Related to National Security Screening of Foreign Investments?
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