Background
A range of international reform processes have commenced in order redress critiques of Investor-States Dispute Resolution. The most prominent is currently occurring within UNCITRAL’s Working Group III. In early 2018, the ISDS Academic Forum was established in order to make a constructive and research-based contribution to these discussions.
This workshop in Oslo will provide an opportunity for the Academic Forum’s working groups to present draft papers on six issues that have triggered criticism: (1) legal costs; (2) duration of proceedings; (3) legal consistency; (4) decisional correctness; (5) arbitral diversity; and (6) arbitral independence and impartiality. An open call for papers will be also sent out for extra contributions from Academic Forum members on these topics.
The workshop will also include a public session on the reform process; while closed sessions will be open to Forum members and a limited number of academic observers.
Program
Friday 1 February 2019
9:00-10:45 Opening Session (Public)
Welcome: Daniel Behn, Associate Professor, Pluricourts, University of Oslo and Lecturer, University of Liverpool
Chair: Malcolm Langford, Professor of Public Law & Affiliate, Pluricourts, University of Oslo
Keynote: Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, President, International Council for Commercial Arbitration and Professor Emerita, Geneva University Law School, CIDS Geneva
Comment: What's wrong with investment arbitration?
Maria Laura Marceddu, Visiting Lecturer, International Investment Law, King’s College London
Comment: Investment Dispute Settlement à la Carte within a Multilateral Institution
Stephan Schill, Professor of International and Economic Law and Governance at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam and Geraldo Vidigal, Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam.
11:00-12:30 Session 1: Excessive costs & recoverability of cost awards
Welcome to PluriCourts: Geir Ulfstein, Co-Director, PluriCourts Centre of Excellence, University of Oslo
Chair: Stephan Schill, Professor of International and Economic Law and Governance at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam
Working group paper: Excessive costs & recoverability of cost awards
Gabriel Bottini, Professor of Public International Law, University of Buenos Aires
The Defense Burden in International Investment Treaty Arbitration? An Empirical Assessment of Costs and Capacity
Ana Maria Daza Vargas, Lecturer in International Law, University of Edinburgh
13:15-14:30 Session 2: Excessive duration of proceedings
Chair: Catherine Kessedjian, Professor emerita of the University Panthéon-Assas Paris II
Working group paper:Excessive duration of proceedings
Holger Hestermeyer, Shell Reader in International Dispute Resolution, King’s College London
Empirical perspectives on duration of proceedings
Malcolm Langford, Professor of Public Law, University of Oslo
Co-opting Domestic Courts as Investment Courts
Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Pluricourts Centre of Excellence, University of Oslo
14:45 -16:00 Session 3: Consistency & coherence in legal interpretation
Chair: Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, Professor, Geneva University, CIDS
Working group paper: Consistency & coherence in legal interpretation
Chester Brown, Professor of International Law & International Arbitration, University of Sydney
Federico Ortino, Reader in International Economic Law, King’s College London
Empirical perspectives on consistency and coherence
Sergio Puig, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arizona and Anton Strezhnev, Post-doctoral fellow, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Comment: Seeking Consistency in the Application of the Contributory Fault Doctrine in Investment Arbitration
Jean-Michel Marcoux, Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University, Faculty of Law
16:30-17:45 Session 4: Incorrectness of the decisions
Chair: George Bermann, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Working group paper: Incorrectness of the decisions
Mark Feldman, Professor of Law, Peking University School of Transnational Law
Empirical perspectives on incorrectness of decisions
Wolfgang Alschner, Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa
Saturday 2 February 2019
9:00-10:15 Session 5: Lack of diversity among ISDS adjudicators
Chair: Catherine Rogers, Professor, Penn State Law
Working group paper: Lack of diversity among ISDS adjudicators
Andrea Bjorklund, L. Yves Fortier Chair in International Arbitration and International Commercial Law, McGill University
Empirical perspectives on diversity
Taylor St John, Lecturer in International Relations, University of St Andrews
Diversity, Ideology and Compliance in International Law
Sergio Puig, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arizona and Anton Strezhnev, Post-doctoral fellow, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Comment: The persistent lack of diversity among ISDS adjudicators within the proposed Investment Court System proposed by the European Union
Juliana S. Soria, Trinity College Dublin
10:30 – 12:00 Session 6: Lack of independence, impartiality & neutrality
Chair: Michele Potestà, Senior Researcher, Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement (CIDS)
Working group paper: Lack of independence, impartiality & neutrality
Steven Ratner, University of Michigan Law School
Empirical perspectives on independence, impartiality & neutrality
Daniel Behn, Lecturer in Law, University of Liverpool & Associate Professor, University of Oslo
A Common Ethics Code for International Arbitrators?
Chiara Giorgetti, Professor, Richmond Law School
An Appointments Panel for Investment Arbitrators: An Idea whose time has come?
James Devaney, Lecturer in Law, University of Glasgow
12:30-14:00 Conclusions and way forward
Chair: Ole Kristian Fauchald, Professor and Coordinator, LEGINVEST, Pluricourts Centre of Excellence
Building the legitimacy of international dispute resolution: Comparative Lessons
Mikael Madsen, Director, iCourts Centre of Excellence, University of Copenhagen
Designing new international institutions: Normative and Comparative lessons
Andreas Føllesdal, Co-Director, PluriCourts Centre of Excellence
Theresa Squatrito, Lecturer in Political Science, University of Liverpool
Steven Ratner, University of Michigan Law School
Way forward
Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, Professor, Geneva University, CIDS
Michele Potestà, Senior Researcher, CIDS