This Article explores the clash between investors’ rights and Indigenous
peoples’ rights in international investment law and arbitration. It
contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the power differentials
among different state and non-state actors as well as the role of
international investment law in maximizing or neutralizing such conflicts.
The existing literature has shown that the protection of the rights
of Indigenous peoples has increasingly intersected with the promotion of
foreign investments in international investment law. However, due to
the extraordinary boom of investor–state arbitrations in the past years, a
comprehensive scrutiny of the relevant arbitrations and a conceptual
analysis of the same is still missing. This Article aims to fill this gap in
the existing literature. Not only does this Article map the most recent
awards dealing with Indigenous peoples’ rights, but it also critically
assesses the key importance of this jurisprudence for the development of
international investment law, human rights law, and international law
more generally.