Privity Of Contract In International Investment Arbitration

Is privity of contract the reason why investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is open to critics, or could it contribute to solving the system’s legitimacy crisis? Privity of contract essentially means that a subject must be a party to a contract, in order to acquire rights and assume obligations, to sue and be sued under that contract. Privity of contract came to land on the shores of ISDS and this has at least on one occasion been described as an ‘original sin’. Arbitral tribunals often need to decide whether they have jurisdiction in cases where a party to the investment contract is not the claimant but a related entity, or not the central government, but a state agency or state-owned enterprise. In light of the deep interconnection between, on the one hand, the criticism today surrounding investment treaty arbitration – be it called judicial activism and regulatory chill, or be it called abuse of law and indirect claims – and, on the other hand, the domains where privity of contract applies, this book’s original and far-reaching analysis clearly lays out, via an in-depth examination of relevant case law, a possible use of the doctrine that can contribute to leading ISDS out of the crisis. The study’s conclusions respond with thoroughly researched authority to such key questions as the following: In which domains of international investment arbitration does the notion of privity of contract operate, and with what effects? How are states and arbitral panels reacting to the persisting unresolved issues raised by the increasing pertinence of this legal doctrine? What solutions are advisable in the midst of the current criticisms surrounding ISDS? The author finds that the doctrine of privity of contract finds application in heterogeneous scenarios, from decisions on jurisdiction where there are forum selection clauses in investment contracts or fork-in-the-road provisions in investment treaties, to consolidation, counterclaims and umbrella clause claims. She proposes a flexible interpretation of the doctrine of privity of contract as a guiding principle arbitral tribunals should consider along with other factors (inter alia the tightness of the relation between the investor and its subsidiary and the host state’s involvement in the organization and function of agencies or state-owned enterprises). The book’s thorough and extensive examination of investment arbitration case law draws comparisons with other international adjudicatory bodies and identifies the most actual and compelling unresolved legal issues. Appendices include lists of many of the arbitration cases, international judgments and national judgments discussed. As a constructive contribution to the current debate, this enquiry is an extraordinary achievement. No other study has conducted such thorough research on the application of privity of contract in investment treaty arbitration. It will be of great interest to arbitration lawyers, arbitrators, foreign investors, host states and scholars in all areas of international arbitration and dispute settlement.

In Contractual Renegotiations and International Investment Arbitration, Aikaterini Florou explores the complex phenomenon of the renegotiation of investor-state contracts. The author reconstructs the relationship between those contracts and the overarching investment treaties using an original interpretative methodology based on transaction cost economics and relational contract theory.

In General Principles of Law in Investment Arbitration, the authors address selected general principles of law, assessing their functions in investment arbitration. The resulting picture is that of a lively source that escapes doctrinal straitjackets and maintains its relevance.

Contracts are relevant, frequently central, for a significant number of investment disputes. Yet, the way tribunals ascertain their content remains largely underexplored. How do tribunals interpret contracts in investment treaty arbitration? How should they interpret contracts? Does national law have any role to play? Contract Interpretation in Investment Treaty Arbitration: A Theory of the Incidental Issue addresses these questions. The monograph offers a valuable insight into the practice and theory of contract interpretation in investment treaty arbitration. By proposing a theoretical frame for seamless integration of contract interpretation into the overall structure of decision-making, the book contributes to predictability, coherence, sufficiency and correctness of the tribunals’ interpretative practices in investment treaty arbitration.

This new edition of what has rapidly become the pre-eminent work on the role of municipal law in investment treaty arbitration is justified not only by the accelerating appearance of investment treaty awards but also by the continuing, serious flaws in the application of international law by investment treaty arbitral tribunals. As a matter of international law, arbitrators need to be attentive to the circumstances where municipal law supplies the necessary substantive legal rule. They will find this book to be the best guide to this complex challenge. The author has maintained the overall structure of the first edition and added a new chapter on Article 42 of the ICSID Convention. Certain descriptions and arguments have been rethought and revised to clarify their significance and their applicability. The treatment focuses on the role of municipal law in providing the substance for concepts such as contracts, property rights, and shareholders’ rights, which are relevant in the international investment treaty context but are not regulated under international law. Among the complex questions considered are the following: - If the application of international law requires a renvoi to municipal law, how should that renvoi be conducted? - In investment disputes, what role, if any, should municipal law have in assessing State attribution under international law? - Should shareholders receive compensation for damages suffered by their company due to a violation of an international obligation vis-à-vis the company? - Does a contractual right exist to foreign investment ‘property’? - Under what conditions may a violation of municipal law become internationally wrongful? - May foreign investors rely on ‘expectations’ as an autonomous source of rights in investment treaty disputes? - Does an alleged breach of an umbrella clause transform a breach of contract claim covered by municipal law into an international law claim? The chapters answer these and many other questions in extraordinary depth, drawing on detailed analyses of the issues and implications posed by major relevant cases and arbitral decisions. The author’s analysis of the unavoidable interaction of municipal law and international law in investment treaty arbitration – and the consequences stemming from rejecting the application of municipal law when relevant – will continue to prove of immeasurable value to arbitrators, arbitration counsel, corporate counsel, and scholars of international law.

This volume contains the papers and proceedings of the eighth annual Juris Conference addressing new developments in investment treaty arbitration with a focus on the fundamental issues that have drawn some of the greatest controversies in the jurisprudence over the past few years. The four topics addressed in this book include: Challenges to Arbitrators: Should the Challenge Process Be Overhauled?New Developments in Definition of "Investment": What Is the Role of the Concept of "Property" in Investment Arbitration?Is Investment Treaty Arbitration a Mechanism to Second-guess Governments' Exercise of Administrative Discretion: Public Law or Lex Investoria?Awarding Damages: Proportionality, Contributory Fault, and Arbitral Tribunals' Discretion or Toss of a Coin? Contributors: Meriam N. Alrashid Paul Barker Julie Bédard Alexander Bĕlohlávek Amal Bouchenaki Mark N. Bravin Kate Brown de Vejar Julián Cárdenas Garcia Tina Cicchetti Robert A. DeRise Paolo Di Rosa James Egerton-Vernon Timothy L. Foden George K. Foster John Y. Gotanda George Kahale III Jonathan S. Kallmer Joshua Karton Matthew S. Kronby Pablo D. López Zadicoff Juan Felipe Merizalde Urdaneta Craig Miles Caline Mouawad Timothy G. Nelson Michael Nolan Eloïse Obadia Sirshar Qureshi Charles E. Roh Charles B. Rosenberg Margarita R. Sánchez Matthew D. Slater Fernando A. Tupa Janet M. Whittaker

This collection of essays emerged from a seminar on international investment law taught jointly by the editors at the Yale Law School . The participants brought a rich experience and, as important for a subject like this, a rich national diversity. A considerable part of the seminar involved close reading of recent international investment arbitral awards. These decisions have emerged as the most important engines of legal development in this field. Interestingly, in almost all instances, it was felt that the right decision had been reached. But without the building blocks that reasons reflect, one could not reconstruct or a oereverse engineera the reasoning of the tribunal. From this experience, it was concluded that it would be a useful exercise to examine the adequacy of reasons in some of the most important recent international investment law awards in order to see if there were significant trends with policy implications. The studies in this collection represent the best of the seminar.

This book gives a comprehensive overview of all relevant aspects of the issue of applicable substantive law in the context of investor/State arbitration. It is a comparative survey of both the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and non-ICSID arbitral practice. The applicable substantive law represents an important issue in investment disputes as it determines the rules of law that should be applied to the merits of the dispute. This study demonstrates the need for a discussion on the applicable law before examining the merits of the case, as it appears to be non-existent in most arbitral awards. The author gives an extensive survey of choice of law clauses as found in direct agreements between parties and in multilateral or bilateral investment treaties. Furthermore, the author analyzes the following issues: stabilization clauses in investment agreements, the application of the residual rule (if parties failed to agree on the applicable law), the special position of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and various annulment decisions.