Los Contratos de Estabilidad ¿Una verdadera herramienta para la protección Jurídica en Colombia: de los intereses del inversionista extranjero y del Estado colombiano?

Abstract

Direct foreign investment is considered essential for a country’s development. However, attracting foreign investment is not easy for countries with high political instability given that political risk is one of the main concerns of foreign investors when they are choosing where to invest. Stabilization mechanisms appeared to solve this disjunctive since they are able to conciliate both the State’s need to promote foreign investment and the protection of the foreigner’s interest to invest in a stable environment. Colombia chose legal stabilization contracts as the mechanism for attracting investment. These contracts were regulated in Law 963 of 2005, which gave the government permission to sign this type of contracts with national and foreign investors. This paper’s aim is to analyze the law that gave birth to these contracts as well as the contracts that Colombia has subscribed until now in order to determine if the stabilization mechanism that was chosen serves to fulfill both the investor’s interests and the protection of Colombian sovereignty. To achieve this, the international practices regarding stabilization clauses that have been employed until now will be used as reference and subject of comparison.