INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT ARBITRATION Legitimacy challenges and prospects for future reforms (original) (raw)
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The Backlash against Investment Arbitration
Commentators increasingly question whether a backlash against the foreign investment regime is underway. This book, the outgrowth of a conference organized by the editors at Harvard Law School on April 19, 2008, aims to uncover the drivers behind the backlash against the current international investment regime. A diverse set of contributors reflect on the current state and the future direction of the international investment regime, and offer some tentative solutions for improvement: academics, practitioners, government officials and civil society. Contributors assess whether the current regime of investment arbitration is in crisis. They take a step back to look at the long-term prospects of investment arbitration, including reforms that could bring substantial improvements to the investment arbitration process. These questions can no longer be ignored or be dismissed as esoteric criticisms by fringe groups or outsiders with no stake in the system. Without appropriate remedial action, the rising discontent over the perceived and actual problems of the international investment regime risks undermining the tremendous gains in the rule of law on cross-border investment flows achieved over the last decades. Unless acknowledged and addressed, these concerns could throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Investment Arbitration and the Public Interest
Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, 2020
The study focuses on analyzing conflicts between (international) investment arbitration and the public interest, dividing its contents into five substantive sections. First, it summarizes the common characteristics of international investment arbitration (distinguishing procedural and substantive elements), followed by its most pressing issues (including frequent criticism such as lack of consistency, asymmetrical proceedings, regulatory chill, etc.). Afterwards, selected investment arbitration cases are examined, grouped based on which areas of public interest they affected (environmental protection, employee rights, public health). These cases all hold relevance and offer different insights into the workings of investment arbitration, which serve to illuminate the complex interplay between foreign investor and public interest. The cases also provide the foundation for the study's conclusions, where key observations are made on the central subjects.
European Yearbook of International Economic Law, 2020
This Chapter first summarizes the criticism voiced against investment treaty arbitration with specific regard to its relationship with domestic courts (infra at Sect. 2.1). It does not seek to discuss all of the multiple concerns raised against investment arbitration, which have already been addressed in the authors' First CIDS Report 1 and are further examined in the UNCITRAL Secretariat's papers, 2 among other materials. 3 Discussing the criticism of investment arbitration vis-à-vis domestic courts requires providing an overview of the main reasons why States created the investment treaty system in the first place (infra at Sect. 2.2) and examining today's justifications for keeping or putting in place an international system of investment dispute resolution, whether in the form of arbitration or standing adjudicatory bodies (infra at Sect. 2.3). The following subsections will in particular ask: What goals were IIAs intended to achieve? In light of those goals, what is the function of international courts and tribunals in the investment law domain, either in their current arbitral configuration or in future constellations such as a MIC? As States are considering questions concerning the institutional design and redesign of the system, it appears important to seek to provide answers to these questions in order to test the continuing validity of the assumptions which underpin the conclusion of investment treaties with international dispute resolution mechanisms.
Reforming International Investment Arbitration: an Introduction
The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals
For over a decade, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) has suffered a socalled legitimacy crisis.1 Critics have argued that ISDS is pro-investor, biased against developing countries, beset by incoherent jurisprudence and plagued by a lack of transparency and excessive costs and compensation.2 While the 1 Amongst the first scholarly critiques was Susan D. Franck's, "The Legitimacy Crisis in Investment Treaty Arbitration:
Current State of Transparency in Investment Arbitration: Progress Made But Not Enough
K. Drličková, T. Kyselovská (eds.), COFOLA INTERNATIONAL 2017: Resolution of International Disputes (Conference Proceedings), Brno , 2017
The issue of transparency is one of the main causes of the “backlash” against investor-state arbitration that we observe today. Perceived lack of transparency has led to notorious terms such as “secret trade courts” and “proceedings behind closed doors”. During the recent years the international community thus has initiated a series of steps to improve the situation. The main effort was concentrated in the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), which prepared important instruments to address the concerns of insufficient transparency and participation in proceedings. However, as the paper illustrates, challenges regarding this area still remain and are worth further attention.
67. International investment arbitration: Winning, losing and why
2012
This second edition of this publication provides an overview of important contemporary issues relating to foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational enterprises for all those who are interested in this subject, but are not always in a position to follow diverse perspectives and what is being written in the various corners of this field. The contributions are grouped under the following headings: attracting FDI and its impact; the rise of emerging market investors; national policies; sustainable international investment; and international investment treaties and arbitration. The volume brings together all Perspectives published since the inception of this series until 2012.https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch\_bk\_contributions/1391/thumbnail.jp