Evidence and the Principle of Good Faith in Investment Arbitration: Finding Meaning in Public International Law

Author(s):  
Filippo Fontanelli

AbstractThis is the first half of a two-part essay on jurisdiction and admissibility in investment arbitration. It focuses on the arbitration practice, whilst the second part sets these concepts in the wider framework of public international law litigation. This essay maps the objections to the tribunal’s jurisdiction (byratio: materiae, temporis, lociandpersonae) and the claim’s admissibility. It offers some preliminary conclusions: in certain areas there still is no consensus; tribunals are inclined to characterise objections as jurisdictional, and rarely resort to admissibility; findings of inadmissibility draw a judgment on the claimant or the claim’s propriety (whilst jurisdictional decisions typically eschew value-judgment); tribunals failed to distinguish jurisdiction from admissibility. These findings are further explored, within a wider theoretical context, in the second part of the essay.


Author(s):  
Fouret Julien

This chapter aims to help the new investment arbitration practitioner identify and find the main legal sources for dealing with international investment law issues. Three different topics need to be addressed in order to cover, as extensively as possible, the legal issues generally raised during an arbitration based on an international investment agreement. First, even though the stare decisis rule does not exist in international arbitration, including investment arbitration, previous rulings are often used and analyzed by arbitrators. Second, when dealing with investment arbitration, it is likely that the claim will be treaty based. Finally, and most importantly, in international investment disputes, arbitral tribunals rely on all the sources of public international law identified in Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which provides for the Court to apply.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-115
Author(s):  
Verity Robson

Abstract Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 is foundational, but not exceptional: the duty to respect and ensure respect for the Conventions must be considered within the framework of public international law as a whole. The Article obliges each High Contracting Party and its organs to respect the Geneva Conventions, and to ensure respect for these Conventions by the population over which it exercises authority and any other persons or groups whose conduct is attributable to it. This scope is demonstrated by the ordinary meaning of the term, subsequent agreements, subsequent practice and other relevant rules of international law, and confirmed by reference to the travaux preparatoires. In particular, erga omnes status does not affect it. As a matter of good faith performance of the Conventions, each High Contracting Party also has a duty not to encourage violations by others. Common Article 1 does not require, as some authors have argued, the prevention or termination of breaches of the Geneva Conventions by other parties to conflict, but High Contracting Parties may choose to take steps toward doing so, as a matter of policy.


Author(s):  
Catharine Titi

A principle with a long pedigree, equity has been present in legal thought and in municipal legal systems since antiquity. Introduced in international legal decisions through claims commissions and arbitral tribunals, equity became progressively part and parcel of the international law mainstream. This book provides a systematic and comprehensive study of the legal concept of equity as it operates in contemporary international law, setting it on a new basis and dealing with some common misconceptions about it. In contrast with earlier studies on the topic, the book is informed by a body of judicial and arbitral case law that has never been so large and varied and it draws extensively on the prolific case law of investment tribunals, gaining insights from a valuable source that is typically ignored in public international law scholarship. From international cultural heritage law to the law on climate change, from maritime boundary delimitations to decisions on security for costs in investment arbitration, the relevance of equity is more far-reaching than has previously been conceded. As the importance of international law increases, continuously covering new domains, the value of equity increases with it. It is this new function of equity in the international law of the 21st century that this book explores.


Author(s):  
Kabir Duggal ◽  
Wendy W. Cai

AbstractPrinciples of Evidence in Public International Law as Applied by Investor-State Tribunals explores the fundamental principles of evidence and how these principles relating to burden of proof and standards of proof are derived.By tracing the applications of major principles recognized by the International Court of Justice and applied by investor-state tribunal jurisprudence, the authors offer valuable insight into the interpretation, understanding, and nuances of indispensable principles of evidence, an area that has been ignored in both investor-state arbitration and public international law more generally. Each principle is analyzed through historical and modern lenses to provide clarity and cohesion in understanding how fundamental principles of evidence will affect evidentiary dispositions of parties in investment arbitration and public international law cases.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Johanna McDavitt

<p>This paper aims to use the transparency debate within investment arbitration, and specifically the discussions of Working Group II when preparing the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency, as a lens to examine how the international community conceptualises investment arbitration. It will argue that investment arbitration is no longer viewed as a private system of dispute resolution akin to international commercial arbitration. Rather, the public interest, public international law, and regulatory nature of investment arbitration is increasingly coming to the fore. Accordingly, the consent of the parties is no longer at the heart of arbitral authority. This paper aims to identify what alternate theoretical conception of investment arbitration is driving transparency initiatives in investment arbitration.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Kirchbach

Conflicts and tensions frequently arise between public regulatory interests and investment protection, especially in the area of global health law. Which requirements must a host state observe in order to avoid liability before an investment arbitration tribunal for violation of both the prohibition on expropriation and the fair and equitable treatment standard when introducing health regulations? This thesis examines the framework for national regulations under public international law, on the basis of the verdict in the Philip Morris v Uruguay case. In doing so, it examines the areas of worker protection, environmental health, alcohol consumption and food health exemplarily. The analysis concludes that restrictions on national leeway in this respect through regulations in the public interest are less intrusive than often assumed.


Author(s):  
Lars Markert ◽  
Elisa Freiburg

This article sets out to examine the legal nature of and the requirements for granting moral damages in international (investment) law. In doing so, we will consider various general public international law and investment law cases. We will place a particular emphasis on the former, since they provide a valuable platform for the analysis of the origins of moral damages and an exploration of how international tribunals have dealt with moral damages under different circumstances. The more recent investment arbitration cases provide a useful insight into several controversial issues arising out of the arbitral tribunals’ holdings. We will develop a proposal as to how moral damages should be characterized doctrinally and show that nowadays moral damages claims are generally accepted in investment law, despite still existing uncertainties regarding their scope and application.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Kałduński

AbstractInvestments have always been exposed to a degree of risk. The present article, based on the author’s presentation at the conference “Sir Hersch Lauterpacht ‐ Lawyer of Two Cultures”, organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law of the University of Cambridge on 5‐6 November 2008, examines the element of risk, inherent in any investment project, as it has been delineated through international investment arbitration. The main focus is on the duty, on the part of the investor, to make a risk-assessment and act in good faith. These duties, however, do not mean ipso facto that the investor is responsible for any occurrence that may damage the investment. It is at this point that tribunals bear an important obligation to balance investor and host State interests.


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