Investor-State Dispute Settlement: A Scoping Paper for the Investment Policy Community

Governments are facing an increasing number of arbitration claims by foreign investors relating to important public policies or seeking substantial damages, and many governments are taking a greater joint interest in how such cases are resolved in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). This scoping paper has supported inter-governmental dialogue about ISDS at several OECD-hosted investment Roundtable meetings. Part I compares ISDS with other international and domestic processes for resolving disputes including the WTO and European Court of Human Rights, and considers how ISDS may affect domestic policy making processes. Part II examines eight current and emerging issues in ISDS: (i) investors’ access to justice; (ii) the costs of ISDS cases; (iii) remedies for foreign investors under investment treaties and their possible impact on a level playing field for domestic and foreign investors; (iv) the enforcement and execution of ISDS awards; (v) third party financing of ISDS; (vi) the characteristics, selection and regulation of arbitrators in ISDS; (vii) forum shopping and treaty shopping by investors; and (viii) the question of the consistency of decision-making in ISDS. Part III outlines key findings from a statistical survey of ISDS provisions in 1,660 bilateral investment treaties. Public comment on this paper, including 46 investment policy questions (as outlined in the paper), was obtained in May-July 2012 and is available on the OECD website.