Shell and the Creation of International Investment Law, 1957–1968

This article explores the role that Shell – in particular, through its legal department – played in shaping international investment law from 1957 to 1968. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, including personal correspondence and governmental archives, it reconstructs Shell’s strategic campaign to protect foreign investments. It does so by analysing the activities of key Shell lawyers such as Lord Hartley Shawcross, John Blair, George Winthrop Haight, Louis Sandberg and Jan Wouter Josephus Jitta. These individuals lobbied governments, drafted treaties and shaped legal precedents to safeguard corporate interests. As a result, the article sheds light on the broader implications of corporate influence on international law, revealing how Shell’s legal strategies contributed to the current system of investor-state dispute resolution, a system, in other words, that cannot be seen in isolation from the interests of the oil industry.