Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword – James Crawford
- Preface
- Table of investment cases
- Table of cases of international courts and tribunals
- Table of cases of municipal courts
- Table of appendices
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The juridical foundations of investment treaty arbitration
- 2 Applicable laws
- 3 Taxonomy of preliminary issues relating to jurisdiction and admissibility in investment treaty arbitration
- 4 Consent to the arbitration of investment disputes
- 5 Investment
- 6 Jurisdiction ratione materiae
- 7 Jurisdiction ratione personae
- 8 Jurisdiction ratione temporis
- 9 The obligation to accord most-favoured-nation treatment and the jurisdiction of an investment treaty tribunal
- 10 Admissibility: Contractual choice of forum
- 11 Admissibility: Shareholder claims
- 12 Admissibility: Dispositions relating to the legal and beneficial ownership of the investment
- 13 Admissibility: Denial of Benefits
- Appendices
- Index
Foreword – James Crawford
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword – James Crawford
- Preface
- Table of investment cases
- Table of cases of international courts and tribunals
- Table of cases of municipal courts
- Table of appendices
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The juridical foundations of investment treaty arbitration
- 2 Applicable laws
- 3 Taxonomy of preliminary issues relating to jurisdiction and admissibility in investment treaty arbitration
- 4 Consent to the arbitration of investment disputes
- 5 Investment
- 6 Jurisdiction ratione materiae
- 7 Jurisdiction ratione personae
- 8 Jurisdiction ratione temporis
- 9 The obligation to accord most-favoured-nation treatment and the jurisdiction of an investment treaty tribunal
- 10 Admissibility: Contractual choice of forum
- 11 Admissibility: Shareholder claims
- 12 Admissibility: Dispositions relating to the legal and beneficial ownership of the investment
- 13 Admissibility: Denial of Benefits
- Appendices
- Index
Summary
Some would say investment arbitration has reached its half-life. Emerging from, or in reaction against, earlier inter-state forms – diplomatic protection, FCN treaties, etc – it has a kind of ‘boom-and-bust’ feel to it. Ad hoc tribunals have produced an erratic pattern of decisions, with reasoning often impressionistic and displaying a certain disregard for state regulatory prerogatives. This is leading in turn to a reaction by some host states. Meantime there is much that is uncertain and unpredictable.
Zachary Douglas is unsparing in his criticism of particular decisions. But he does not accept either the rose-tinted view that the international investment tribunal is a new form of merchants' court, dispensing a relatively unconstrained justice – or the sceptic's alternative view that there is no point in the quest for explanations, and thereby for greater certainty. Rather he seeks to provide guidance, to say the law, even in Diceyan propositional form.
One characteristic of the field of investment arbitration is the overlapping and interaction of laws and legal systems. In analysing this phenomenon, Douglas displays fluency not only in public international law but also in private international law, adding greatly to the strength of his analysis – and to the collected wisdom of Dicey!
But there is much more. Douglas brings to his work a solid understanding of the functions – and sometimes dysfunctions – of international arbitration, generated by his practical and professional experience.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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