Temporal Limits to Trade and Investment Measures Coping with a Sanitary Emergency under International Law

Governments’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic has mostly been adopted under state-of-emergency legislation. In this scenario, a remarkable number of States affected by the spreading of the COVID-19 have resorted to measures partly departing from their international commitments. International trade and investment law have been particularly involved in the process, with most countries adopting export or import restrictions and pieces of legislation potentially affecting foreign investors. The purpose of the present contribution is to analyse the temporal element or the duration of adopted measures in these two fields of international law. Temporariness is posited as an inherent component of the response to an emergency. It is generally rooted in constitutional clauses on emergency powers and in the principle of proportionality. The research aims to understand to what extent measures adopted during an emergency have to present a temporary nature and what role the temporal element plays in the assessment of their legitimacy, especially under treaty and customary defences. In order to do so, the article analyses the existing international legal framework on both trade and investments and the related practice of international judicial organs or arbitral tribunals, and draws conclusions on the current COVID-related responses.