Foreign direct investment succeeds or fails long before the first dispute. The structure you choose — where the holding company sits, how the investment is admitted, what the contracts say about disputes — determines what protections exist if the host state later changes the rules. We advise investors entering Latin America, the Caribbean, and other emerging markets on building that protection in from day one.

Pre-Investment Structuring

Treaty-aware structuring means choosing the investment vehicle’s jurisdiction with the treaty network in mind — legitimately, before any dispute is foreseeable. Our free Investment Treaty Finder shows which instruments may be potentially relevant to a country pair; the structuring analysis itself turns on ownership, control, substance requirements, and denial-of-benefits provisions in the actual treaty texts.

Screening, Admission, and Compliance

Inbound and outbound screening regimes now shape FDI as much as tax does: host-state admission and registration requirements (which can affect treaty protection), U.S. outbound-investment restrictions in sensitive sectors, and sanctions exposure where counterparties or regions are restricted. Getting admission right matters twice — once for the regulator, and again years later if a tribunal asks whether the investment was made in accordance with host-state law.

Contractual Protections

Where treaties are thin — Brazil is the classic example — protection comes from drafting: arbitration clauses with enforceable seats, stabilization and change-in-law provisions in concession agreements, currency and transfer terms, and political-risk insurance layered over the gaps.

When the Relationship Sours

If a government measure is already threatening your FDI, the analysis shifts from structuring to remedies: see investment protection and our fixed-fee Treaty-Risk Assessment.

Planning a foreign investment? An hour of structuring advice is worth more than a year of arbitration. Contact our office.