International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Investor-State Arbitration

92 posts

A Peaceful Expropriation?

From the WSJ: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is seeking to purchase a local unit of France's Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, a few weeks after he first ordered the expropriation of one of the retail chains controlled by the French company. Venezuela has started negotiations with Casino to buy an

Investment Treaty Arbitration and Censorship

From Luke Peterson: There are growing signs that investment treaty protections – while rarely discussed in media or human rights law circles - may be surprisingly useful in some cases of repression or censorship of foreign-owned media. While there is growing debate as to the uses of World Trade Organization agreements

U.S. Takings Law and International Takings Law: The Florida Beach Erosion Case

From the WSJ: The Supreme Court waded into a property-rights dispute Wednesday, weighing whether Florida can restore eroded beaches in front of private homes and designate the newly emerged beach as public property. Erosion threatens nearly 59% of Florida's 825 miles of sandy beaches, according to the state&

More Investor-State Debate

Following up on this post, the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP) recently held a review of the U.S. Model BIT. The report issued by the Committee has a discussion of many issues under BITs, including the investor-state dispute mechanism. It's too

Damages: Investor-State Versus State-to-State

What's the difference in assessing damages as between investor-state dispute settlement and state-to-state trade disputes? Well, with state-to-state, enforcing a successful complaint often revolves around the fuzzy concept of nullification or impairment, and it's up to the aggrieved state to come up with its own trade

Comments on the U.S. Model BIT: The Investor-State Debate

At this link is a list of submissions made in relation to the review of the U.S. model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Here's a sampling of the comments submitted on the investor-state arbitration mechanism (in no particular order), with the submitting entity indicated. (Not that I think

Investor-State in FTAs

In the context of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the Emergency Committee for American Trade makes the following point: The U.S.-Australia FTA did not include one vitally important component of a strong investment chapter, namely investor-state dispute settlement. ECAT very strongly urges that investor-state dispute settlement be included

Susan Franck on Investment Treaty Arbitration

Susan Franck has posted "Development and Outcomes of Investment Treaty Arbitration " on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The legitimacy of investment treaty arbitration is a matter of heated debate. Asserting that arbitration is unfairly tilted toward the developed world, some countries have withdrawn from World Bank dispute resolution

Bailouts and International Investment Law

From Anne van Aaken and Jürgen Kurtz, a brief paper entitled "THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS: WILL STATE EMERGENCY MEASURES TRIGGER INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT DISPUTES?" From the conclusion: We draw two tentative conclusions, implicated in our analysis of potential liability under international investment treaties. First, there is clear evidence of

The Trucking Dispute: Not Just About Trade Anymore

The Trucking Dispute is now a NAFTA Chapter 11 investment dispute as well: After nearly two years of resisting the opening of the U.S.-Mexico border to long-haul trucking operations, the Mexican motor carrier association now is taking the U.S. to “NAFTA court.” Canacar filed a Notice of