On 1 December 2016, Mr. Pedro Martinez-Fraga, Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law, and Mr. Ryan Reetz, former scholar-in-residence at the Center, gave a talk at King’s College, London, on “The Certainty of Uncertainty in the Protection Standards & Policies of Investor-State Arbitration”.
In their discussion, the presenters asserted that international standards for investment protection are inadequate and command reconceptualization if they are to lead to uniformity, predictability, transparency and to process legitimacy. Specifically, it was argued that because international standards of investment protection arise from (1) domestic law liability rules, (2) domestic law property rules, (3) liability and damages doctrines pertaining to private international law, and (4) do not account for a globalization non- territorially based economic framework, they lead to uncertainty even at basic levels, such as defining with certainty and uniformity the very elements of protections. They called for the inclusion of a “plus factor” that shall consider (1) macroeconomic consequences, (2) microeconomic effects, (3) economic efficiencies, (4) distributive consequences, and the host-state’s (5) social policy budget.
Put simply, the presenters called for standards of investment protection that most uniformly may lead to distinguishing objectively between compensable and non-compensable state action.
For a video of the talk please click here.