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Please join the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, the Columbia Society of International Law (CSIL), and the Columbia International Arbitration Association (CIAA) for a talk by Martin Jarrett on "The Rise of Domestic Courts in International Investment Law."
With the help of the New York Convention and ICSID Convention, it looks as if domestic courts have only a marginal role to play in resolving investor-state disputes under international investment treaties. Instead, international arbitration is the predominant means for disputing parties to settle foreign investment disputes. This situation, however, is changing.
First, constitutional courts are reviewing the constitutional compatibility of investment treaties. Second, domestic courts are becoming arbiters in investor-state disputes, either because investors bring, one, claims both in arbitration and before domestic courts or, two (in some cases), investment-treaty claims before domestic courts. Third, domestic courts are finding ways to help investment-treaty arbitration (by assisting with the collection of evidence) and hinder it (by issuing anti-arbitration injunctions or becoming complicit in States’ retaliatory measures against investors for their investment-treaty suits). Fourth, domestic courts are proactively reviewing arbitral awards.
This research project documents the new ways that domestic courts are becoming involved in investment-treaty arbitrations, with a view to answering the question: how are domestic courts changing international investment law? The basic thesis holds that more than being mere objects of international investment law, domestic courts are becoming actors in this area of law. The research results will be published in a soon-to-be-released edited collection with Oxford University Press.
Martin Jarrett is an Australian-qualified lawyer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws (with first class honours), and a Doctor of Laws (summa cum laude). He currently works as a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. His research focuses on international business transactions and international investment law, particularly the topics of causation and investor misconduct. He also regularly lectures on these areas of law at universities across Australia and Europe. Aside from his academic work, he works as a legal consultant, mostly for internationally active scientific organizations. As part of his practice-orientated work, he works on a delegation at UNCITRAL Working Group III.
Pizza lunch will be provided.