Book Review of Piercing the Veil of State Enterprises in International Arbitration / by Albert Badia ISBN 978-9041151621, $216.00

Abstract

Most legal books inform the reader about the current status of the law and add, where appropriate, the author’s own view on certain topics. More rarely, an author proposes either a wholly new idea or further develops an idea that has yet only rudimentarily been dealt with. The second sort of book is more innovative than descriptive. Albert Badia’s book certainly belongs to this second group. Badia’s book is about the attribution of the conduct of State enterprises to the State under international law. The basic question that Badia raises is whether the established principles of State attribution as restated by the International Law Commission (ILC) in the Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ILC Draft Articles)2 suffice to cover the scenarios under which the conduct of State enterprises should be attributed to the State when considering the principle of good faith, the prohibition of the abuse of rights and the rule of equity. Badia believes that there are cases in which the ILC Draft Articles fall short, and he advocates that tribunals should rely on the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil to bridge the gap. His work combines academic vigour with practical relevance. It stimulates further academic discussion but is at the same time designed to be used in investment arbitration practice.