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.

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 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.

Within the context of an exponential proliferation of investment treaties with virtually uniform language and structure, The Interpretation of Investment Treaties by Trinh Hai Yen reveals the neglect or misapplication of international rules on treaty interpretation by tribunals in arbitral cases. Such practice has raised the question of the legitimacy of the interpretative process and the engendered inconsistent interpretations of investment treaties. The book proposes three interpretative approaches aimed at ensuring that adjudicators find legitimate meaning in the challenging generality and vagueness of investment treaty language. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of legislative solutions for states through a case study of the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement, as well as a comparative analysis of modern and traditional investment treaties.

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 the field of investment treaty arbitration, the co-existence of contracts and treaties has generated an increasingly divided jurisprudence on central aspects of treaty interpretation. This book comprehensively examines the legal problems surrounding the relationship of these two instruments.

Investor-state arbitration is a relatively new dispute settlement mechanism that allows foreign investors the opportunity to seek redress for damages arising out of breaches of investment-related treaty obligations by the governments of host countries. Claims are submitted to independent, international arbitration tribunals, which are called upon to interpret the treaty at hand. Because of the public interest involved in these cases, the awards of these tribunals are subject to much scrutiny and debate. Thus, it has already generated hundreds of cases and created new legal disciplines, inspiring a continuous string of legal writings. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the main issues that arise in investor-state arbitration. It accompanies the reader through the phases of such a procedure, starting with an examination of the instruments, which provide, in the overwhelming majority of the cases, the legal basis for the requests for such arbitration. It then continues with the launching of the arbitration procedure, followed by the analysis of the main jurisdictional and substantive issues that the tribunals are confronted with, and the review procedures, when there is a request for setting aside of the award. It finally looks at the post-award phase and concludes with a reflection on the role of precedent in investment arbitration. Arbitration under International Investment Agreements: a Guide to the Key Issues contains in one volume what everybody needs to know on this evolving topic. Calling on the most renowned experts in this field, private practitioners, academics, government and international organization officials, it describes the process in all its phases from A to Z, providing a comprehensive insight in the way investor-state arbitration works from the perspective of the main actors involved. Its analyses of all key aspects of the topic are pragmatic and reliable.