KDEC 9765 - Fundamental Questions of Contemporary International Investment Law and Arbitration

The course provides in-depth analyses of contemporary treaty and arbitration practices by focusing on five overarching issues which shape the design and content of the field as well as structure the discourses and narratives about it. These issues constitute ‘sites’ of legal, conceptual and political struggles wherein diverging and conflictual approaches compete to provide policy answers and legal solutions to specific issues that arise in legal practice and academia as well as across civil societies and political circles.

These five overarching issues are : 1) the sources of international investment law, 2) the right of States to regulate, 3) sustainable development and human rights, 4) States’ consent to investor-State arbitration and 5) the legitimacy of investor-State arbitration.

Students should have a good command of public international law.

This course is delivered through discussion seminars where students are expected to actively participate by expressing and justifying their opinions. Preparation prior to each session is absolutely essential.

At the end of the course, students are required to write an essay on a topic of their choice. The topic must relate to one of the fundamental questions analyzed in the course or have a cross-cutting dimension pertaining to several of these fundamental questions.