Specific to our epoch is a general acceleration of time in society, a trend towards the "ever urgent", which is due among many other factors to the development of electronic means of communication. This general phenomenon is more precisely an acceleration of social time (i.e. the rhythm at which...

This article discusses axiological interferences of conceptions of justice associated with the nation-state in epistemological projects on transnational commercial law. It argues that the justice beliefs underlying classical legal positivism, which make us see law exclusively in state law,...

We now have a total of more than 650 investment arbitration claims. The number of countries targeted by arbitration is on the rise, both in the developing and developed worlds, and has reached a total of more than 100 states. Given the hard economic times that most countries have been going...

International commercial courts seem quite likely to become a successful product on the dispute resolution market. But they are not merely that. They are not mechanisms resolving an array of disputes which are isolated from and have no effect on their socio-economic environment. They rather are...

Investor-state arbitration, also called investment arbitration, is often accused of harming developing states facing economic hardship, for the benefit of a wealthy few from the Global North. Its proponents respond that it is the only available means to resolve disputes impartially, and that its...

Investment arbitrations should not happen too often, because they are costly processes for both parties. Yet they regularly happen. Why? We investigate the hypothesis that investment arbitrations are used as a means of last resort, after dissuasion has failed, and that dissuasion is most likely...