The Tripartite Dimension of Conflicts of Interests - Workers, Foreign Investors and Host States in the Energy Sector

This chapter unravels and analyses the labour issues that exist in the energy sector, i.e. the oil and gas sector, and examines how international investment law can be used to address these issues. It puts forth that contrary to investment arbitration that is characterized by the public/private conflict of interests, labour issues result from conflicts of interests having a ‘tripartite dimension’ inasmuch as they involve the private interest of foreign investors, the public interest of workers and other states’ public interest, e.g. national security. This chapter further claims that the ‘sustainable development’ provisions characteristic of the new generation of IIA and in particular FTA have the potential to address these labour issues and their underlying conflict of interests, especially those existing within the ‘box’ of the public interest. It concludes that this tripartite understanding of the conflicts of interests is not merely relevant to discuss the labour issues in the energy sector, but more generally that it is applicable both to other sectors beyond the energy sector and to other ‘humanitarian’ issues beyond labour issues