Investment Treaty Arbitration

Investment treaty arbitration is essentially arbitration between foreign investors and host States under the public international law regime of international investment law. 

International investment law is a sub-specie of international economic law. The investor requests arbitration against the host State pursuant to alleged violations of international investment law as found in various international investment agreements or foreign direct investment laws (e.g., bilateral investment treaties). 

The field of investment treaty arbitration has grown exponentially the last century.

Furthermore, as this field of law has grown it is increasingly interacting with other public international law regimes, such as human rights and environmental law. This intersection will be covered to some extent.

This course is divided in three elements that inform each other: (1) International Dispute Resolution, the background to international investment law (“IIL”), and investor-state dispute settlement (“ISDS”), (2) International Investment Law, and (3) Procedural Aspects of Investment Treaty Arbitration (ITA): 

(1) We will briefly go over the core features and history of international dispute resolution (international courts and tribunals, commissions, arbitration bodies, etc.). This element will be short. Some knowledge in international litigation and ideally international arbitration is necessary, albeit not a strict prerequisite. 

(2) We will focus on protection of foreign investments under international law. We will look at treaty law and customary international law. We will also designate some time to the background of international investment agreements (“IIA”) and treaty interpretation based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

(3) We will analyze and address procedural features (and issues) in connection with investment treaty arbitration. We will look at inter alia jurisdiction, applicable law, interim measures, remedies, challenges and annulments, confidentiality and transparency, enforcement of investment awards, and sovereign immunity from execution of arbitral awards.