Book excerpt: Today thousands of investors act globally in markets providing services, technology or capital in countries all around the world. This activity can be peacefully accomplished when both the investor and the host State know that the disputes will be resolved under the aegis of the investor-State arbitration regime, wherein an investor is provided with a direct right of action against a State, most commonly stemming from a bilateral or multilateral investment treaty. This book approaches the substantive and sometimes difficult concepts of investor-State arbitration in a clear and concise explanatory fashion. In the course of acquainting the reader with the basic legal concepts and policies of the regime, the authors address such issues as the following: • consent to jurisdiction; • State responsibility; • possible conflict of interests; • mechanisms for reviewing an award; • damages and costs; and • enforcement. The book examines a number of arbitration procedures arising from various perspectives with differing underlying assumptions while highlighting important cases. Given that investor-State arbitration is now under the public watch and facing many challenges, this remarkably clear and concise overview of the regime will prove to be of great value to in-house counsel and other practitioners, as well as to government policymakers and students.x`