[All redactions made under Art. 4.1(b)]
Ref. Ares(2016)2881256 - 21/06/2016
Ref. Ares(2017)1963547 - 13/04/2017
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General for Trade
Directorate F - WTO, Legal Affairs and Trade in Goods
Dispute Settlement and Legal Aspects of Trade Policy
Brussels, 20 June 2016
DG TRADE/F2/
trade.dga2.f.2(2016)3417863
NOTE TO THE FILE
Re: Meeting
report: Interactive expert meeting on "Investment-Related Dispute
Settlement: Towards a comprehensive multilateral approach" organized by
the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Montreux,
Switzerland, 23-24 May 2016
I attended a workshop on possible approaches towards the creation of a multilateral
investment-dispute settlement mechanism organized by the International Institute for
Sustainable Development (IISD) in Montreux on 23-24 May 2016. Participants came
from academia (NYU, Fletcher School, Kent, Amsterdam, Xiamen, Geneva, Freiburg),
civil society organizations (IISD, South Centre), United Nations (OHCHR, UNECA,
UNCTAD), as well as from the government of Ecuador.
Discussions took place under the Chatham House Rule, in form of brainstorming plenary
and group sessions, with the objective of identifying possible legal and political
initiatives for establishing a comprehensive multilateral investment–related dispute
settlement system. The approach proposed by IISD was a broad and inclusive mechanism
which would not only address investor-State disputes, but also allows individuals,
communities or associations to join or to submit claims for alleged misbehaviour by
investors.
The discussions underlined the legal, technical and political difficulties of such a broad
approach (questions of the applicable law, links with existing international conventions
in the fields of human rights, environment or CSR, the administration of the mechanism,
the scope of standing before the dispute settlement mechanism, etc.) and no operative
conclusions were drawn.
Interestingly, the working text proposals put forward by the organizers built to a large
extent on the EU ICS proposals (in particular regarding qualifications and ethics of
judges, appeal, transparency, composition of chambers of the court, etc.), which was
often referred to as an major step forward in the reform of the investment dispute
resolution system.
(e-signed)
(DG TRADE, F2)
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111