To what extent is Saudi Arabia conformed to the Rule of Law aspects of Bilateral Investment Treaties?

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate to what extent Saudi conforms to the ROL aspects of BITs. Section 2 will begin by giving an overview of BITs and the ramifications underpinning signing them. It shall demonstrate that BITs were initially created to mitigate existing risk in developing, or emerging economies, that lack a strong ROL framework. As such, Section 3 will construct a theoretical framework of the ROL. The ROL is no easy task to digest; therefore, to simplify the matter a theoretical benchmark will be established which will be used for the purposes of this paper. This shall lead to a critical evaluation of the social, economic, political, historical, religious and legal issues with Saudi. Section 4 endeavors to outline key areas of the aspects the ROL of BITs; highlighting the key considerations for the Saudi government. This shall lead to section 5, which will investigate and attempt to provide an answer to the research question of the paper, in regard to Saudi’s conformity to the ROL aspects of BITs.