This book is the result of more than two years of research. I would like to thank the Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section) at the University of Ottawa, my colleagues and members of the administrative staff for their support throughout the years. I am especially indebted to several bright and talented students from the University of Ottawa who have assisted me over the last several years with research and editing. Their assistance was invaluable to the completion of this book. I want to sincerely thank Nicolas Karsenti, Jessica Provencher-Garand, Corey Spector, and Evan Bernstein. All of them have done an amazing job.

I would furthermore like to thank to all the people at Edward Elgar Publishing (Stephanie Tytherleigh, Luke Adams, Sally Philip, Sarah Brown, etc.) for their patience and support in the revision process for the publication of this book. More particularly, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Andrea Bjorklund and Professor August Reinisch for agreeing to publish my book in the Elgar International Investment Law series.

Most importantly, I would like to dedicate this book to my parents and my children. I would like to first express my gratitude to my parents for their unconditional support and love throughout my life. I also wish to thank my beautiful, funny and bright children, Ophélie and Florent. Your love and affection have given me the strength to write this book. I hope that one day you will read this book and fully understand the extent to which this whole odyssey would have simply been impossible (and really pointless) without your constant love and support. You have been there for me through thick and thin. My daughter (who is now nine years old) told me a few years ago ‘Daddy, I personally don’t really care what your books are all about, what I am happy about is that you like to write them so much.’ That is exactly the kind of support that I needed when I wrote this book. Ophélie, your interests have changed so much over the years: astronaut, doctor, teacher, etc. Recently, after watching the movie Gandhi you said ‘I think I want to be a lawyer like him.’ Well, needless to say that it would make me very proud! In any event, your current plan to become a professional Bolshoi ballerina is also quite awesome! Florent (now seven years old), in my last book published in 2016, I promised you that one day I would write an international law book involving Ninja Turtles! Well, I must admit that I’m still struggling to figure out the proper angle to touch up the controversial question of their (limited, yet unquestionable …) impact on contemporary international law! Nowadays, your love has turned to football, and more specifically to the player Cristiano Ronaldo. I fully support your on-going plan to become as good as him! Yet, you may want to consider continuing your school career for a (little) while in the (unlikely) event that you don’t quite get there! Merci à vous deux mes amours! Finally, a very special thanks to Christina in the last miles of this journey: you have been amazing!

Patrick Dumberry

Montréal, Canada

October 2017