Can the Mauritius Convention Serve as a Model for the Reform of Investor–State Arbitration in Connection with the Introduction of a Permanent Investment Tribunal or an Appeal Mechanism? Analysis and Roadmap

By Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler & Michele Potestà, Published by Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement (CIDS), June 2016

The paper proposes a possible roadmap that could be followed if states were to decide to pursue a reform initiative of the existing investor–state arbitration regime in international investment agreements (IIAs), based on three main blocks: the design of an International Tribunal for Investments (ITI), the design of an Appeal Mechanism (AM) for investor–state arbitral awards and the establishment of an opt-in multilateral convention to extend those new dispute resolution options to states’ existing IIAs. While concluding that the challenges involved in broader reforms of the investor–state arbitration regime are substantially more complex than the introduction of a transparency standard in investment treaties, the paper also shows that the Mauritius Convention could provide a useful model. Available at http://www.UNCITRAL.org/pdf/english/commissionsessions/unc/unc-49/CIDS_Research_Paper_-_Can_the_Mauritius_Convention_serve_as_a_model.pdf.