Nondiscrimination in trade and investment treaties: Worlds apart or two sides of the same coin?

International trade and investment treaties both use national treatment provisions to prohibit discrimination against foreigners, but do so for different reasons. As disputes increasingly cross the boundary between trade and investment, the origin, evolution, and goals of the treaties require somewhat different applications of national treatment. At its core, however, national treatment prohibits only discrimination based on nationality, so in both contexts proof of a legitimate policy objective should vindicate a domestic law against a charge of discrimination.