Investment
tribunals have applied the abuse of rights doctrine to distinguish between legitimate
corporate nationality planning and objectionable manipulation of corporate nationality.
This doctrine is further concretized into “the foreseeability test”, which examines
whether there is a foreseeable dispute at the time of nationality planning. After
revisiting related investment arbitral decisions and academic commentaries, this
article argues that the abuse of rights doctrine is an appropriate tool for
tribunals to combat abusive nationality planning. That said, it also identifies
several unsettled issues under current case law and suggests corresponding
solutions.