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The role of investment arbitration is a controversial issue, as it is increasingly seen as a system in which private arbitrators adjudicate on the public law decisions of states. This book provides an empirical study of the function of investment arbitration, how it is impacting on international law, and the ways in which it is in need of reform.
List of contents
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Approaches to Judicial Restraint
- 3: Restraint Based on Relative Accountability
- 4: Restraint Based on Relative Capacity
- 5: Restraint Based on Relative Suitability
- 6: Strict Controllers of Nations
About the author
Gus Van Harten is Associate Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School. He previously taught at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Investment Treaty Arbitration and Public Law (OUP, 2007). His research examines international and comparative aspects of public law, including procedural aspects of public inquiries and national security confidentiality. He worked previously on the Arar Inquiry, on the Walkerton Inquiry, and as a law clerk at the Ontario Court of Appeal. He received the William Robson Memorial Prize from LSE, a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, an Overseas Research Award from Universities UK, and a Research Award from the Canadian International Development Agency.
Summary
The role of investment arbitration is a controversial issue, as it is increasingly seen as a system in which private arbitrators adjudicate on the public law decisions of states. This book provides an empirical study of the function of investment arbitration, how it is impacting on international law, and the ways in which it is in need of reform.
Additional text
An academic grenade lobbed at the ever growing number of investor-state disputes and the arbitral procedures that govern them... [A] succinct, refreshingly jargon-free, and scholarly censure of the foreign investment arbitral regime... Van Harten has produced a strong critique of the process by which the modern world addresses disputes arising from the estimated $ 1.5 trillion in investment flows that now cross national boundaries each year... defenders of the nearly 3000 investment agreements that exist... will find much to ponder in this ringing broadside against a regime that is often lauded as an essential building bloc of globalization, economic development, and the rule of law.
