A Public Law View of the New Generation of FTAs

Abstract

This article intends to consider what the new generation of FITs might signify for our understanding of public law. Rather than modelling international public law or questioning its legitimacy derived from national public law (or one independently generated), I want to focus on a ‘public law’ thread running through all of this. The analysis here traces the transliteration of investment protection arbitration from public international law to international public law. It begins first by briefly outlining the established position of foreign direct investment protection in public international law. It then reviews the public law character claimed for investor-state arbitration, a claim which is criticised. And finally the analysis considers how those public law elements can feed ‘international public law’. This points to forms of transnational legal pluralism and I consider at the end what the implications may be for a conception of state and law.