Schill: Sources of International Investment Law: Multilateralization, Arbitral Precedent, Comparativism, Soft Law

Stephan W. Schill (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Sources of International Investment Law: Multilateralization, Arbitral Precedent, Comparativism, Soft Law (in The Oxford Handbook on the Sources of International Law, Jean d’Aspremont & Samantha Besson eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper discusses the use of sources of international law in the settlement of disputes arising under bilateral, regional and multilateral investment treaties and investment chapters in free trade agreements, focusing specifically on particularities this field of international law displays in comparison to general international law. It addresses, first, the importance of bilateral treaties in international investment law (IIL) and shows that their bilateral form is not opposed to the emergence of a genuinely multilateral regime of IIL. Second, the paper turns to the preeminent importance arbitral decisions assume in determining and developing the content of IIL. Third, the paper addresses the increasing influence of comparative law in IIL and its impact on its understanding of sources. Fourth, the paper discusses how soft law instruments influence IIL, even though they are not binding law. It argues that the particular ‘sources-mix’ in IIL is chiefly a product of the existence of compulsory dispute settlement through investment treaty arbitration and the sociological composition of the field.