The Department of Legal Studies cordially invites you to its monthly Brown Bag Seminar, held on November 14, 12 -1 pm. Prof. Petsche will present his paper “Conceptual Overlaps between Investment Protection Standards: Analysis of a Yet Unexplored Systemic Problem of ISDS”.
You can find the abstract below.
The seminar will be held in hybrid format.
Zoom details:
Meeting ID: 992 3097 8559
Passcode: 719536
To join in person: QS C-201
Abstract
This article explores the problem of conceptual overlaps between standards of protection contained in international investment agreements. Such overlaps occur because existing investment protection standards frequently cover similar categories of state conduct. In other words, where a state measure breaches a particular standard of protection, it will often also violate one or several other standards. This leads, in practice, to a multiplication of claims (or legal bases), which unduly increases the complexity and cost of investor-state arbitration proceedings. Although the problem of overlaps has occasionally been referred to in academic writings, to date, no scholarly work has analysed this phenomenon in any detail. The present contribution seeks to fill this gap in the literature. It (1) offers a comprehensive examination of the nature, frequency, and magnitude of overlaps, (2) identifies and explores the various causes of this problem, and (3) discusses solutions to prevent or minimize overlaps.