Depoliticisation of investment dispute settlement is considered to be one of the principal reasons and advantages of investor-State arbitrations. This paper considers the added value that the depoliticisation vocabulary brings to the resolution of modern challenges. First of all, equating...

The case study of investment treaty arbitration provides an opportunity to examine whether and how the invocation of responsibility by a non-state actor has affected secondary rules of state responsibility. This article takes the analytical perspective of investors, capable of being perceived as...

One of the risks that international economic law is facing is the inability to give consistent answers to actual needs. Coherence, consistency and predictability of international law rules are particularly relevant in a global world and market, where private actors are increasingly gaining...

Brazil is currently immersed in the project of building a new common market, known as MERCOSUR, with its neighbors Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It has largely been assumed that this project will produce economic growth and therefore be beneficial for the environment. However, this assumption...

The objective of this paper is to assess the claim that the WTO dispute settlement system should improve the transparency of its proceedings to people by opening panel and Appellate Body meetings as well as accepting and reflecting unsolicited amicus curiae briefs. This paper argues that the...

Decisions by arbitral tribunals in investment treaty cases do not have formal precedential status. Yet certain issues recur, and prior decisions at the least provide guidance to later tribunals. The content of the most frequently invoked substantive treaty provisions - the obligations to accord...

On August 22, 2012, the Russian Federation joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as dispute settlement mechanisms designed to resolve WTO trade disputes and governed by the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). Hence Russia has since...

Russia has been actively participating in the dispute settlement system handled by the WTO. As of the year-end of 2019, Russia had been involved in a total of 96 disputes: in 8 disputes as a complainant, in 9 disputes as a respondent, and in 79 disputes as a third party. In 2019, Russia became a...

This chapter argues that the WTO Appellate Body has not been consistent in applying Article 31 of the VCLT and considering the context of the relevant treaty text in light of its object and purpose. It has instead either been overly mechanistic in its textual interpretation or has strayed from...

In Philippines - Distilled Spirits, the Appellate Body of the WTO reaffirmed that the determination of 'likeness' in the GATT should be about the competitive relationship between products. A coherent methodology for the determination of 'likeness' has finally begun to emerge, with the same...