Workshop: ICSID at 50: Investment Arbitration as a Motor of General International Law?

On March 11-12, 2016, Rainer Hofmann (Univ. of Frankfurt), Stephan W. Schill (Univ. of Amsterdam), and Christian J. Tams (Univ. of Glasgow) will again convene the Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop. The topic is: "ICSID at 50: Investment Arbitration as a Motor of General International Law?" The program is here. Here's the idea:

For many years, the Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop - jointly organized by Rainer Hofmann (Frankfurt), Stephan W. Schill (Amsterdam), and Christian J. Tams (Glasgow) - has been a forum for the discussion of foundational issues of international investment law.

As ICSID reaches its half-century, the next workshop asks whether and to what extent international investment law and investor-State arbitration are 'motors of general international law‘? No doubt, investment law in its 'BIT era’ operates within a framework of general international law - it does not exist, to take up a phrase coined in relation to WTO law, in 'clinical isolation‘. But how about the reverse effect? Do investment law and investment arbitration have radiating effects? Do they shape international law more generally?

The workshop addresses this question against the backdrop of investment law’s increased relevance. Over the past decade, international investment law, once considered an exotic niche area, has moved into the international legal mainstream. The increasing numbers of investment treaties, proliferating investment disputes, and the negotiation of mega-regionals (such as TTIP and TTP) attest to this; they have raised awareness for investment law and resulted in increasing contestation. The question is whether approaches and ideas tried out and tested in investment treaty making and arbitration are being picked up by law-makers and dispute settlers in other fields. Contributions to this workshop address this question. They focus on three areas in which investment law and arbitration might be seen as a motor of legal development: the law of dispute settlement, the law of treaties, and state responsibility. As in previous years, the workshop will bring together academics and practitioners and provide them with a forum for open and frank exchanges.

The program is available here; for edited collections that have grown out of earlier Frankfurt Investment Law Workshops see here, here and here.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Sabine Schimpf, Merton Centre for European Integration and International Economic Order, University of Frankfurt, E-Mail: S.Schimpf@jur.uni-frankfurt.de by 28 February 2016.