Recueil Des Cours, Collected Courses, Tome 429
Description:... The mechanism of international investment arbitration developed within public international law, as one of its oldest and most central disciplines. In recent decades, much attention has been paid to the astonishing evolution of the field. By contrast, the relationship between international investment arbitration and private international law (including private law in general) has received relatively little consideration.
The modern international investment claims regime faces several proposals for reform, mainly directing their criticism toward the current practice of arbitration. However, a core issue remains unaddressed in most of these reform discussions, namely: the nature of the substantive law applicable to foreign investments. An adjudicator, whoever and however appointed, is limited in their ability to produce reliable precedent in the absence of an appropriate substantive regulatory framework.
This book takes no position regarding the question of the optimal dispute resolution mechanism or the avenues of reform for international investment claims, and instead focuses on the critical matter of the applicable substantive law, with its intricacies, complexities and nuances. Given that there is no realistic hope for the negotiation, much less the ratification, of a universal instrument to comprehensively deal with this matter, focus can and must shift to current evolution in relevant areas of law related to foreign investments.
Impressive developments in public and private international law, and in international arbitration, already exist today that, taken as a whole, are conducive to a more appropriate handling of the substantive law applicable to foreign investments. However, better interdisciplinary dialogue is needed. Hopefully, this book will make a case in favor of that necessity.
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