A few weeks ago, I noted that the EU - Viet Nam FTA would include the EU's proposed new Investment Court System (ICS). The text of that FTA has just been released, so now everyone can see what the big deal is. The ICS part is in Chapter 8, Section 3, "Resolution of Investment Disputes," available here. Sub-section 4 is titled "Investment Tribunal System," and has all the details if you are into this issue.
Watching the debate among ISDS supporters about whether the old "arbitration" system or the new "court" system is preferable has been interesting. On the other side of the issue, as far as I can tell, not one ISDS critic has been remotely convinced, with one very important exception: It sounds like this change may be sufficient to sway a few members of the European Parliament. Will it be enough to get the European Parliament to approve an FTA with ISDS? And how will the Parliament feel about yet to be approved FTAs that have the old ISDS?