Cloud Computing as an Investment Under the ICSID Convention
Fatih Burak Uzun · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2018
Extracting data’s value can only be possible by using a high amount of processing power. The most eligible way of procuringsuch amount of processing power is using cloud computing services. Cloud computing services face several interventionsby governments around the globe. The most notable interventions relate to the localization of data and data processingfacility. Since cloud computing services nearly always provided internationally, there is a need to explore the possibilityof protecting cloud computing services from those interventions by using a legal tool from the 1960s namely the ICSIDConvention which allows forming arbitrational tribunals to solve investment disputes between investors and states. Oneof the conditions for ICSID tribunals to have jurisdiction over disputes is that the dispute at hand must be related toan investment. However, the ICSID Convention does not contain a definition of the investment term. Mainly, there aretwo different approaches among the case law and legal doctrine for defining the investment term. The first approach isleaving 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.