Mills: The Public-Private Dualities of International Investment Law and Arbitration

Alex Mills (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) has posted The Public-Private Dualities of International Investment Law and Arbitration (in Evolution in Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration, Chester Brown & Kate Miles eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In recent years, the thousands of international investment treaties have given rise to hundreds of investor-state arbitrations. International investment law has thus become a topic of great practical importance, and one which has received significant attention in both arbitral awards and academic literature. International investment law, however, appears to possess inherent ‘dualities’ – analogous to an optical illusion, a single image or object which may appear strikingly different to different viewers or from different perspectives. The dualities of international investment law are presented in some of the most fundamental questions concerning its nature and purpose. This chapter explores the ideas or influences which lead analysis of the subject in conflicting directions and invite these seemingly contradictory viewpoints, by focusing on the ‘public-private’ distinctions or conceptions which lie at its contested foundations. These public-private dualities thus form a kind of conceptual lens through which international investment law may be viewed, and through which its different appearances or representations can be examined.