Investor-State Disputes: Prevention and Alternatives to Arbitration II - Proceedings of Symposium on International Investment and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Geneva, 19 July 2011 - Much untapped value lies in the use of alternative dispute resolution to resolve disputes between foreign investors and the States hosting such investors, a new UNCTAD publication contends. The report, Investor-State Disputes: Prevention and Alternatives to Arbitration II, was released on 14 July. It is the second publication by UNCTAD on the use of alternative dispute resolution to settle investor-State disputes resulting from alleged breaches of international investment agreements.
The study compiles and synthesizes ideas addressed and explored during a Joint Symposium on International Investment and ADR organized by UNCTAD and the Washington and Lee University School of Law. The symposium brought together a group of experts - before, during and after a conference in Lexington, Virginia, U.S.A., held on 29 March 2010 - to focus on the use of alternative dispute resolution in the context of international investment law. The study benefits from written contributions from these experts.
While the study considers the strengths and weaknesses of existing investor-State dispute settlement processes that focus on arbitration as the main approach to resolving such disputes, various alternatives to arbitration are identified. There are opportunities to prevent conflict escalation and minimize the scope of disputes at various junctures, including the pre-conflict phase, the pre-dispute phase, the formalized dispute phase, during adjudicative proceedings and in the post-award phase, the report says. Overall, the joint symposium demonstrated that the use of alternative dispute resolution in these contexts is an area of clear interest to stakeholders and experts that deserves further systematic consideration.
