The Guide to Investment Treaty Protection and Enforcement

The issue of applicable law in investment treaty arbitration, despite its long development, remains an unsettled point. The very nature of investment protection, based on a web of treaties between sovereign states, renders it difficult to establish common characteristics pertaining to the applicable law in resolving investment treaty disputes.

Wolf Theiss’ contribution to the THE GUIDE TO INVESTMENT TREATY PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT sets out general principles related to the issue of THE APPLICABLE LAW IN INVESTMENT TREATY ARBITRATION. It begins with a discussion of the application of the principle of party autonomy to the issue of applicable law, before addressing the methods used by tribunals in resolving conflicts of law and focusing on the three main sources of law in investment treaty arbitration:

• the predominant role of investment treaties,
• the prominent role of general international law,
• the impact of municipal law.

Finally, our authors Stefan Riegler, Dalibor Valinčić and Borna Dejanović explain how conflicts between applicable laws are resolved in investment arbitration proceedings, as well as illustrate the potential consequences of a tribunal’s failure to properly identify and correctly apply the relevant laws.

Interested in more details? Read our chapter here or download the full Guide here.