Exception clauses in mega-regionals (international investment protection and trade agreements)

Abstract

This chapter examines the growing body of treaty law which is designed to clarify areas of ambiguity which have emerged in investor-state jurisprudence and, more particularly, to preserve the regulatory autonomy of states from arbitral decisions and interpretations which appear to overreach the original intentions of the states party to bilateral investment treaties and investment protection chapters in regional trade agreements. Many different approaches are adopted in the drafting of recent treaties, especially recent mega-regional trade treaties, both substantive and procedural. The different methods of framing exceptions are examined as well as procedural devices, such as the Investment Tribunal (or, "Investment Court System") recently included in the EU Canada CETA text.