CIDS Report on reform of investor-State arbitration presented at current UNCITRAL session in New York

A research paper on the reform of investor-State dispute settlement, prepared by the CIDS, was discussed at the 49^th session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on 8 July 2016 in New York. The UNCITRAL Commission decided to add the reform of investor-State arbitration discussed in the CIDS Report on the list of possible future work, for consideration in July 2017. The CIDS Report can be downloaded from the UNCITRAL website.

As explained in the UNCITRAL Secretariat’s note to the attention of the Commission of 24 May 2016, the CIDS Report analyzes whether the Mauritius Convention on Transparency could provide a model for broader reform of the investor-State arbitration framework. To this end, the paper proposes a roadmap that could be followed if States were to pursue a reform initiative aimed at replacing or supplementing the investor-State arbitration regime currently provided in international investment agreements with a permanent investment tribunal and/or an appeal mechanism for investor-State arbitral awards.

The CIDS or Center for International Dispute Settlement is a joint center of the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva. The CIDS Report was co-authored by Prof. Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, co-director of the CIDS, and Dr. Michele Potestà, CIDS senior researcher, in collaboration with a team of researchers.  

For more information on the CIDS: http://www.cids.ch/. For information on the UNCITRAL Commission’s work in connection with the CIDS Report: http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/commission/sessions/49th.html.