A rethink of investor-state dispute settlement

Professor A F M Maniruzzaman considers the impact of a spectacular growth of investor-state dispute resolution by arbitration over the last two decades, looking at issues raised by excessive investor-state arbitral awards with wider implications beyond the field of arbitration itself, such as concerns about the role of arbitrators vis-à-vis the respondent state’s public interest in regulating various matters including environmental protection, low-carbon investments, social and human rights; dire economic consequences flowing from arbitrators’ decisions who lack in democratic legitimacy of a domestic or international judicial institution; and inconsistency in arbitral interpretation of investment treaty obligations, hence unpredictability in arbitral decisions on similar or identical issues.