Geneva Still Inspires? An Appellate Mechanism for Investment Treaty Arbitration

Abstract

This necessarily abbreviated workshop paper concerns an attempt to adapt lessons learnt from the WTO dispute settlement system (DSS) in midst of the on-going backlash against the investor-State dispute settlement system (ISDS). It is in three parts:

1) Part I describes current events.
2) Part 2 describes the proposal for an appellate mechanism for investment treaty arbitration. In particular, it describes how the EU proposal for a two-tier multilateral investment court (MIC) takes inspiration from the WTO DSS.
3) Part 3 lists some key questions in relation to such an appellate mechanism.
4) Part 4 focusses on how two sets of current reform proposals in the international economic law field – divided along the lines of trade and investment treaty frameworks – might interact.
5) Part 5 concludes this brief overview.