Increased Transparency in Investor-State Dispute Settlement

What are the impacts of transparency rules for treaty-based investor-State arbitration? Dimitrij Euler, a PhD student in public international law, co-edited a commentary on the new UNCITRAL Rules of Transparency. (Image: University of Basel, Roland Schmid) Disputes between investors and states are usually handled within the confidential framework of international arbitration tribunals. To make this process more transparent, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) amended its international procedural rules in 2013. A commentary co-edited by Dimitrij Euler, a PhD student in public international law at the University of Basel, examines the effects of the new Rules on Transparency. In 2014, Yukos shareholders from Russia won a 50 billion dollar investor-State arbitration settlement concerning the nationalization of their company. In 2012, the energy corporation, Vattenfall, brought a suit against the German State for more than four billion euros over the planned phase-out of nuclear energy. Switzerland is currently facing the threat of legal action before an international arbitration tribunal in Washington: a Turkish company is alleging that around 300 million euros in investments in Switzerland have been frozen and illegally transferred to Turkey.