Lights and shadows of the WTO-inspired international court system of investor-state dispute settlement

This paper was written by several authors, including individuals who are not affiliated with the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA). Its original purpose was to provide a reasoned commentary to the proposal, advanced by the European Union (EU), to include in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) a new system of investor-state dispute settlement based on permanent courts instead of arbitration (the investment court system or ICS). This study was first presented at the EFILA conference in February 2016 and was subsequently updated to reflect the more recent developments, namely the inclusion in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement of a system that follows closely the EU’s proposal for TTIP. The aim has been to ensure that the different perspectives and expertise of the contributing authors are reflected in the analysis. The main aim of the report is to present an in-depth analysis of the ICS in the context of the existing investment regime, as well as comparing it with the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization.