According to a study by the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the number of bilateral agreements for the promotion and the protection of foreign investments increased spectacularly in the 1990s. In fact it went from 385 at the end of the 1980s to a total of 1,875 (involving 173 countries) at the end of the 1990s. The UNCTAD also notes that: a) the number of agreements concluded between developing countries, between developing countries and Central and Eastern...