Dr. Filip Batselé

Filip Batselé is a legal historian focusing on the history of international economic law and policy, with a focus on Western Europe during the second half of the 20th century. He has a PhD in Laws (2023) from Ghent University and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Double degree). Filip has previously published a monograph (on the law of slavery) with Springer. Over the past few years, he has focused his writing on the historical role of large corporations in international law, as well as international investment protection policy during the Cold War era.

Research Project

Universalising the Rules of Investment Protection: Making the Eastern Bloc 'Safe' for Western European Investment (1976-1999)

During the final quarter of the 20th century, Western and Eastern Europe’s policy towards private foreign direct investment (FDI) evolved from two widely divergent models (pro vs contra FDI) in the Cold War context to a shared approach favouring investment attraction and protection during the 1990s. This project looks at the role of international law in creating a universal rulebook of foreign investment protection in Europe. It analyses the policy process that drove Western and Eastern European states to sign bilateral investment treaties (BITs), which provided legal protections and dispute settlement procedures for Western European investors in Eastern Europe, with one another starting from the mid-1970s. The project uses archival records of the two leading European capital-exporting states in Central and Eastern Europe, namely Germany and The Netherlands, and expert interviews, to explain the universalising of the investment treaty regime.