We are pleased to offer you the full text of the 2015 EFILA Inaugural Lecture by Sophie Nappert, “Escaping from Freedom? The Dilemma of An Improved ISDS Mechanism“, delivered on 26 November 2015 in London.
In times such as ours, when freedom is often abandoned for security to be gained, Sophie Nappert’s lecture is a vindication of freedom endorsed by law.
Executive Summary
ISDS in its current international arbitration format has attracted criticism. In response, the EU proposal for ISDS in the TTIP consists of a two-tiered court system, comprising an appeal mechanism empowered to review first-instance decisions on both factual and legal grounds and, the EU says, paving the way for a “multilateral investment court”.
The EU proposal envisages that the courts of first instance and appeal be composed of pre-ordained, semi-permanent judges randomly assigned to cases and subject to compliance with a Code of Conduct worded in general terms.
As it stands the EU proposal walks away from the international arbitration format, and consequently the application of the New York Convention.
The Lecture expresses surprise at the EU proposal of a court mechanism given the CJEU’s unambiguous, historical unease with other similar, parallel international court systems, as most recently expressed in its Opinion 2/13 of 18 December 2014 on the draft Accession Agreement to the
European Convention on Human Rights.
The Lecture examines whether, and how, the EU proposal might provide solutions to critical issues presented in two recent cases taken as illustrations – the Awards in the cases of the Yukos shareholders against the Russian Federation, as well as the case of Croatia v Slovenia currently pending in the PCA.
The Lecture remarks that appeal mechanisms are not free from difficulty, not least of which the real risk of inconsistent decisions between the first and appeal instances, due to different, equally valid approaches to a developing area of international law.
The Lecture also notes that the proposed Code of Conduct provides no practical sanctions to deal with instances of arbitrator misconduct such as that featured in the Croatia v Slovenia matter, and expresses surprise that ethical challenges are to be decided by fellow Judges – probably one of the most problematic features of the current ICSID system.
The Lecture proposes a third way, aimed at addressing these concerns, whereby a Committee – stroke – Interpretive Body, informed by the intentions of the TTIP Parties, would take over the development of TTIP jurisprudence in a more linear and consistent manner, with a longer-term view, whilst ad hoc arbitration tribunals in their current form would focus on the settlement of the discrete factual dispute.
Dissociating the settlement of the factual dispute from the broader interpretive exercise would create a repository of the TTIP jurisprudential function, allowing for a more harmonious and authoritative development of TTIP interpretation and law and alleviating the phenomenon of “overreaching” currently burdening ad hoc tribunals – arguably the real source of the criticism aimed at ISDS.
The Committee/Interpretive Body could also more credibly act as decision-maker in ethical challenges than would fellow Judges, provided the Code of Conduct is reviewed to allow for realistic standards and practical sanctions.
This proposed “third way” retains the arbitration features necessary for the application of the New York Convention, and is not inconsistent with the EU’s own proposal, building as it does on Article 13(5) which contemplates an overseeing Committee that would be well-placed to take over the above role.
See the full text of the Lecture here.