Abstract:

Extracting data’s value can only be possible by using a high amount of processing power. The most eligible way of procuring such amount of processing power is using cloud computing services. Cloud computing services face several interventions by governments around the globe. The most notable interventions relate to the localization of data and data processing facility. Since cloud computing services nearly always provided internationally, there is a need to explore the possibility of protecting cloud computing services from those interventions by using a legal tool from the 1960s namely the ICSID Convention which allows forming arbitrational tribunals to solve investment disputes between investors and states. One of the conditions for ICSID tribunals to have jurisdiction over disputes is that the dispute at hand must be related to an investment. However, the ICSID Convention does not contain a definition of the investment term. Mainly, there are two different approaches among the case law and legal doctrine for defining the investment term. The first approach is leaving the duty of defining the term to the parties. The second approach requires simultaneous fulfilment of the parties’ consent and certain objective criteria. Cloud computing services can meet the required criteria under those approaches.

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