论投资者股权转让对投资仲裁管辖的影响

Study on the Impact of Investor’s Equity Transfer to the Jurisdiction of Investment Arbitration

国际投资中投资者往往通过转让股权以求更充分地保护其投资利益,但由于股权转让往往导致投资者国籍或投资合同主体的变更,因此会对国际投资仲裁管辖构成要件产生影响。国际投资仲裁中因请求依据的不同可分为条约请求和合同请求,两者管辖构成的要件也会有所区别。条约请求权下,股权转让主要对属人管辖要件产生影响,尤其发生在投资者通过股权转让而进行“国籍挑选”的情况下。合同请求权下,股权转让后对仲裁合意效力的影响成为确认管辖权的关键,而仲裁庭对于“仲裁条款自动转移”理论的不明确态度导致了对该问题的裁决不一致。对于因股权转让而导致投资合同中争议解决条款的效力瑕疵,保护伞条款的存在可使合同之诉转化为条约之诉从而扩大投资仲裁管辖权。这虽然给投资者提供更多保护,但也加重了东道国承担的义务,有违国际投资仲裁制度中的公平或平衡原则,需要加以解决与完善。

In order to obtain more adequate protection of investment interests,investors often achieve this by transferring equity in the process of international investment.Since the equity transfer often leads to the change of the investor's nationality or the subject of the investment contract,it will have an impact on the international investment arbitration.Request in international investment arbitration can be divided into treaty request and contract request,and the requirements of the two jurisdictions will be different.Under the right of treaty request,the transfer of equity mainly affects the requirements of personal jurisdiction,especially in the case of“nationality selection”by investors through equity transfer.Under the contract request,the effect of the equity transfer on the validity of the arbitration agreement becomes the key to confirming the jurisdiction,and the arbitral tribunal’s unclear attitude towards the theory of“automatic transfer of arbitration clauses”leads to inconsistency in the decision on the issue.For the effect of the dispute settlement clause in the investment contract caused by the equity transfer,the existence of the umbrella clause can transform the contract request into a treaty request and thus expand the investment arbitration jurisdiction.Although this gives investors more protection,it also aggravates the obligations of the host country and violates the principle of fairness or balance in the international investment arbitration system,which needs to be resolved and improved.