Simon Lester

If an Appellate Body report falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it have any precedential value?  I ask because the Appellate Body issued a report yesterday, and no one seemed to notice.  Usually, there is at least some brief reporting by Reuters and

Here's an excerpt from a paper by U. of Chicago law prof Adam Chilton: Given the limited interest in—and evidence of—the investment benefits of BITs, it is worth reconsidering why the United States actively pursued a BITs program for three decades. I argue that the dominant

Here's more from EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom: For all these reasons, I believe the question about putting investment in TTIP is not whether we should do it but how we can do it right. Can we design a new form of investment arbitration that keeps the benefits

This is from a recent speech by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom: Let me start by stating what is perhaps obvious. The Commission's assessment is that we need to negotiate rules on investment protection and ISDS in TTIP. I know that some members of this house believe otherwise,

For all you international law lovers out there, here are some excerpts from the notice of appeal in Peru - Agricultural Products, filed last week: I. The Panel Erred in Law by Failing to Find that Guatemala Acted Inconsistently with Its Good Faith Obligations under DSU Articles 3.7 and 3.

This is from the Guardian: The European Commission has warned EU citizens that they should close their Facebook accounts if they want to keep information private from US security services, finding that current Safe Harbour legislation does not protect citizen’s data. The comments were made by EC attorney Bernhard

Getting back to academic discussions, here's more from Freya Baetans on ISDS: Four possible alternatives to the inclusion of ISDS in TTIP are frequently mentioned. The first would be to opt for state-to-state arbitration. However, such an option would hardly be preferable, as it will invariably

Here's the minimum standard of treatment provision in the leaked TPP investment chapter (which is basically the same as the U.S. model BIT): Article II.6: Minimum Standard of Treatment 14 1. Each Party shall accord to covered investments treatment in accordance with applicable customary international law

WikiLeaks has posted the Jan 20, 2015 version of the TPP investment chapter. The NY Times reports here.  I'm going to do two short posts, one on national treatment and one on the minimum standard of treatment.  Here's the national treatment provision: Article II.4: National

In the U.S. - Guatemala CAFTA labor case, there's also a really interesting issue about the use of witness statements as evidence.  Here are some excerpts from a panel ruling issued on Feb 26: 9. However, Guatemala’s letter to the panel of that same day raised new