Foreword: Symposium: Romancing the Foreign Investor Bit by Bit

Abstract

Investor-State arbitration under the auspices of investment treaties, both bilateral and multilateral, is burgeoning. The rate at which cases are filed is increasing, as is the rate at which tribunals are issuing decisions in those cases. Those interested in the investor-State dispute settlement process are part of an eclectic community encompassing government and private-sector lawyers, representatives of civil society, academics, international commercial arbitrators, and other students of international law. Members of this community are subjecting those decisions, as well as the wisdom and efficacy of investor-State arbitration itself, to critical and often skeptical scrutiny. The symposium convened by the UC Davis Journal of International Law and Policy was intended to contribute to the analytical scrutiny given to BITs by gathering participants from multiple disciplines and inviting them to engage in a thoughtful inquiry into a variety of topics. These included the efficacy of investment treaties, the actual functioning of investor-State arbitration, and the likely challenges and changes that investor-State dispute settlement will face in the future. Investor-state cases bring to the fore unresolved questions about the interplay between international tribunals and international law and local regulation and local dispute resolution mechanisms. The discussion at the conference, and the papers submitted by the participants that follow, are part of what promises to be a rich and continuing dialogue about the nature of investment dispute settlement.

Keywords: bilateral investment treaties, international arbitration, investor-State arbitration

JEL Classification: F13, K33