Sorry, this entry is only available in French and European Spanish ..read more

International investment law and repressive state power: Rethinking a relationship. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”: The Code of Conduct and Reflections on the 44th Session of the UNCITRAL Working Group III. Looking for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Investment in the WTO Draft Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement ..read more

In this paper, the authors highlight an unexpected synergy between international investment law and state repression that has generally escaped scrutiny. They discuss the full protection and security (FPS) standard, which is commonplace in bilateral investment treaties. They argue that even though international investment lawyers have defended the regime by arguing that it restricts arbitrary and authoritarian state power, investment tribunals have used FPS to demand that states use repressive violence to protect investments. These demands have been put forward even in conditions of social uph ..read more

This piece looks at the negotiations at the UNCITRAL Working Group III on Reform of ISDS dealing with the controversial provision on the regulation of double hatting by arbitrators. Through a detailed overview of various countries’ negotiation dynamics, positions, tactics, and the role of the WG Chairman at display during the 44th session, the author evaluates which negotiation tools may or may not bear fruit in the context of complex multiparty negotiations, such as those at the Working Group III ..read more

On December 16, 2022, the co-coordinators of the WTO Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) circulated a new negotiating text to WTO members, the Draft IFD Agreement (“Draft IFDA”). WTO members have indicated repeatedly throughout the past 5 years of discussions that the goal of their work is not to promote investment facilitation as such but rather to promote investment for development and, specifically, sustainable development. However, the Draft IFDA establishes a framework of facilitation obligations that apply to all FDI, regardless of whether it tends to ..read more

Rockhopper Italia S.p.A., Rockhopper Mediterranean Ltd, and Rockhopper Exploration Plc v. Italian Republic, ICSID Case No. ARB/17/14 ..read more

Cavalum SGPS, S.A. v. Kingdom of Spain, ICSID Case No. ARB/15/34 ..read more

The continent’s Ministers of Justice finalized legal scrubbing of the three key protocols to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), among which was the Protocol on Investment (the other ..read more

After a vote in the Council of the EU for the proposed reform of the Energy Charter Treaty failed last November, the European Commission appears to have radically shifted its ..read more

Sorry, this entry is only available in French and European Spanish ..read more