On 5 May 2020, 23 EU Member States signed an agreement for the termination of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties between EU Members (Termination Agreement). The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) hosted a webinar on 1 June 2020 to discuss legal and practical consequences of the Termination Agreement. The webinar featured presentations from representatives…
Traditionally, nationality for corporate entities has been regulated by national law, often by reference to whether a corporation has a seat in a country or was incorporated under its laws. However, international investment law has departed from the generally accepted rules of international law on the nationality of corporate persons. Already in the 1960s, the…
On 30 April 2020, I spoke at a webinar on the interaction between public international law and the EU Investment screening mechanism organised by Maastricht University and the University of Southern Denmark, which was a part of the Common European Law on Investment Screening (CELIS) project. In 2019, the European Union established a framework for…
On 25 February 2020, we convened an Investment Treaty Forum event to discuss the investment policy of the United Kingdom following its exit from the European Union. The UK is getting ready to deliver on the ambitious promise to conclude new trade agreements with various countries around the world. Although the European Union rules did…
On 17 December 2019 BIICL and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime conducted an event at the eighth session of the Conference of the States Parties to the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in Abu Dhabi. This bi-annual conference gathers representatives of over 180 States parties to the Convention to discuss various…
On 4 December 2019, the newly-established Human Rights Due Diligence Forum of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law convened its first meeting. The topic was the interaction between investment disputes and human rights due diligence. The main focus of the meeting was on the implications of newly adopted or proposed laws on human…
At a fully-packed BIICL event on 6 November 2020, we discussed counterclaims in investor-state disputes. DLA Piper and the Investment Treaty Forum brought together an excellent panel to discuss the complexities of asserting counterclaims, including jurisdictional, substantive and enforcement aspects of it: Michael Ostrove, David Herlihy, Alison Macdonald and Dainis Pudelis from the State Chancellery…
On 18 October 2019, we put together a joint BIICL/University of Liverpool event on the appointment of international judges and arbitrators. The idea was to look at common trends and divergences between various international courts and tribunals with a particular focus on legitimacy and the rule of law. Diversity as legitimacy I presented my views…
On 13 November 2018, ICSID presented its new proposed amendments at a major conference in London. This round of amendments aims, among other things, to modernize the ICSID procedure based on case experience, simplify the rules, and make the process increasingly time and cost-effective while maintaining due process and a balance between investors and States.…