Speaking of investor-state disputes, as I was yesterday, it looks like many of the big names in the field will be assembling for a conference soon:
On March 29, 2010, Washington and Lee School of Law will host a Joint Symposium with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to explore the prevention and efficient management of investment treaty disputes.
The event will bring together academics, governments, practitioners, investors, representatives from international organizations and non-governmental entities from around the world. Professor W. Michael Reisman, the Myres S. McDougal Professor of International Law at Yale University, will deliver the keynote address. Other prominent investment and dispute resolution experts involved include Meg Kinnear, Secretary General of the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), William K. Slate II, President and CEO of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and Wolf von Kumberg, Legal Director and Assistant General Counsel at Northrop Grumman Corporation. There will also be representatives from States such as Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Japan, Rwanda, Thailand and the United States.
I didn't see anything explicit on the conference agenda regarding my point about "individual" versus "group" theories on non-discrimination, but with that many investment treaty specialists in one place, I bet it will come up in conversation at least once.
