62 new investor-state disputes in 2016
Financial Express (Dhaka) | 27 May 2017
62 new investor-state disputes in 2016
In the past year, some 62 Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) cases were initiated by the investors against 41 countries.
The cases were initiated in pursuant to the international investment agreements (IIAs), according to a review report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Thus, total number of such arbitrations stood at 767 at the end of 2016. Most of the new cases were filed by the investors from developed countries.
UNCTAD report showed that about two thirds of ISDS cases in the past year were based on bilateral investment treaties, most of them dating back to the 1980s and 1990s.
The remaining arbitrations were based on treaties with investment provisions.
In 2016, ISDS tribunals made 57 substantive decisions, 41 of which are in the public domain.
Tribunals considered many issues that touch upon policy options identified in UNCTAD’s Road Map for IIA Reform and its Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development.
UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2017, scheduled to unveil the next month, presents and analyses the pros and cons of 10 policy options that countries can take to reform their old-generation treaties.
