Recent Developments in International Investment Law

Abstract

International investment law remains a fast evolving and vibrant field of law with ongoing and recently-concluded investment treaty negotiations continually altering the status quo. It is a system at a crossroads of reform, generally focused on safeguarding the right of the host state to regulate and on improving the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. But reform may also come into play in more far-reaching ways and significant changes are likely to see the day in the near future. One such change concerns the institutional architecture of the resolution of investment disputes, with the possible establishment of a permanent investment court and/or the introduction of an appellate mechanism. Another one relates to the new potential for multilateralism in international investment relations, with UNCITRAL’s Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (hereinafter UNCITRAL Transparency Convention) constituting a step in this direction. At the same time, international investment law is a body of jurisprudence. Investor-state tribunals have continued to interpret international investment agreements (IIAs) and grant compensations to aggrieved investors, exercising their authoritative power on how international investment commitments undertaken by contracting parties are to be understood.