Investor-State Dispute Settlement and National Courts

Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler is Professor Emerita of international arbitration of the University of Geneva Law School, where she founded the MIDS program, and is a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, Georgetown University, Sciences Po Paris and Tsinghua Beijing. She is also a Founding Partner of Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler in Geneva. Since April 2018, she is the President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA).Michele Potestà is a senior researcher at CIDS, where he is involved in a research project dealing with the reform of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Within that framework, he has co-authored for UNCITRAL the First CIDS Report on ISDS Reform and the CIDS Supplemental Report. From 2010 to 2013, he was a lecturer at the Geneva LL.M. in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), where he taught both investment and commercial arbitration. He has authored numerous publications on issues of investment treaty law and arbitration. Michele is also an attorney at Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler in Geneva, practicing international commercial and investment arbitration.

• Scope and objective of this report.- Why investment arbitration and not domestic courts? The origins of the modern investment dispute resolution system, criticism, and future outlook.- The interplay between investor-state arbitration and domestic courts in the existing IIA framework.- The path to reform of ISDS: What role for national courts?.- Conclusions and recommendations.