The Present and Future Role of Investment Treaty
Arbitration in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes
PluriCourts Symposium
5 and 6 November 2015, Oslo
Call for Papers
PluriCourts, a Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo, is organizing an international symposium entitled ‘The Present and Future Role of Investment Treaty Arbitration in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes’. The symposium will be hosted at the faculty of law of the University of Oslo on 5 and 6 November 2015.
This symposium will focus on investment treaty arbitration from a forward-looking perspective on how future practice might be shaped or reformed in a way that can both promote environmental sustainability and protect responsible and legitimate foreign investments. In light of this focus, the symposium will engage participants in discussions on specific reform proposals and practical policy and treaty practice responses to issues dealing with how international investment law and environmental law might become more mutually supportive and complimentary especially in the context of the adjudication of foreign investment disputes concerning environmental issues.
The symposium aims at fostering discussion on the ways in which international investment law and environmental law can be mutually supportive and complimentary. For example, this mutually supportive approach could be investigated from a number of angles: 1) how, when, and to what extent can future IIA practice – as informed by existing treaty practice and jurisprudence – integrate environmental sustainability and protection components (ie GATT-like general exceptions, sustainable development obligations) while still protecting legitimate foreign investments; 2) how, when, and to what extent could environmental agreements (especially those relating to the funding of climate change mitigation and adaptation) incorporate ‘green’ investment protections that are subject to dispute settlement provisions; and 3) how might investment treaty tribunals help promote a state’s compliance with its own environmental obligations where such compliance is the basis of the foreign investor’s claim (ie the pending Allard v Barbados claim).
A partial list of expert scholars, practitioners and arbitrators confirmed for the symposium include:
Freya Baetens, University of Leiden
Andrea Bjorklund, McGill University
Rudolf Dolzer, University of Bonn
Ben Juratowitch, Freshfields
Robert Kirkness, Freshfields
Kate Miles, University of Cambridge
Andrew Newcombe, University of Victoria
Noah Rubins, Freshfields
Stephan Schill, University of Amsterdam
M. Sornarajah, University of Singapore
Jeffrey Sullivan, Allen and Overy
Jorge Vinuales, University of Cambridge
We invite papers to be presented and discussed on the theme of this symposium. We remind applicants to focus specifically on issues of adjudication related to treaty-based arbitrations involving environmental aspects. Please send your abstract (word limit: 500 words) with a CV to: d.f.behn@jus.uio.no. The deadline for submissions is 15 July 2015. Notification of acceptance will be given in the beginning of September 2015. We aim at publishing 5 to 6 selected papers in a special issue of the Journal of World Investment and Trade.
Contacts:
Prof. Christina Voigt, PluriCourts coordinator, environmental law (christina.voigt@jus.uio.no)
Prof. Ole Kristian Fauchald, PluriCourts coordinator, investment law (o.k.fauchald@jus.uio.no)
Dr. Daniel Behn, PluriCourts postdoctoral researcher, investment law (d.f.behn@jus.uio.no)
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Call for Papers: The Present and Future Role of Investment Treaty Arbitration in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes
PluriCourts has issued a call for papers for a symposium on "The Present and Future Role of Investment Treaty Arbitration in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes," to take place November 5-6, 2015, in Oslo. Here's the call:
