It is increasingly clear that the international legal arrangements governing the global economy can have direct implications for land governance.
Take a recent case from Ethiopia, a country where large-scale land deals for agribusiness investments attracted high levels of public attention. In December, the government terminated a 100,000-hectare farmland lease with an Indian investor, alleging lack of progress with land development.
A few weeks ago, the Indian investor was quoted as saying he was “prepared to seek international arbitration on the matter“, claiming that the cancellation violated a bilateral treaty on the protection of foreign investment that the governments of India and Ethiopia signed in 2007.
– See more at: http://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/25776-how-investment-treaties-protect-land-grab-deals#sthash.qym1yg13.dpuf