Abstract Under customary principles of treaty interpretation, tribunals routinely resort to rules of international law whose normative validity is grounded in a source outside of the treaty that is the subject of interpretation. Rules fitting this description are referred to as ‘external rules’ in relation to the treaty being interpreted. This chapter explores the possibility that investment tribunals may take international human rights law into account as such external rules when interpreting the treaties upon which investor claims are based. Section B discusses the practice of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in looking to external rules of international law as interpretative aids. Section C examines Article 31, paragraph 3, sub-paragraph c (Article 31(3)(c)) of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Section D briefly sets out the ways in which international human rights law can inform the interpretation of BITs, based on our analysis of ICJ case law and Article 31(3)(c).
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