The road(s) not taken—the past, present, and future of international investment law reform

Abstract

Abstract In this 37th annual Freshfields Lecture, I explore several roads the international community could have taken in lieu of investor-state arbitration. What choices did they contemplate making – what roads did they consider taking – and what prompted them to make the choices they did? I titled the presentation the past, present, and future of reform of investment arbitration, and I will organize the talk around those three areas. First, I will talk about the past, and about four key choices the international community made over the course of the twentieth century that continue to affect the reform process. I’ll then address the present state of affairs at Working Group III, and how those decisions are influencing the reform process. I will close with a few projections about the future.