Diponegoro Law Review
Vol 6, No 2 (2021): Diponegoro Law Review October 2021

INCONSISTENCIES IN ICSID AWARDS ON DISPUTES RELATED TO MFN AND UMBRELLA CLAUSE

Herliana Herliana (Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada)



Article Info

Publish Date
31 Oct 2021

Abstract

Investment arbitration has been acclaimed as an important part of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) movement around the globe because it provides a neutral and trustable forum for settling investment dispute. However, many argue that investment arbitration often becomes advocates of foreign investors and neglect the developing country’s interests as the host of investment. This paper aims at studying the investment arbitration awards rendered by International Center for Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID) tribunals launched against developing countries. The question is whether and to what extent those awards have equally observed the interests of foreign investors and host states of investments. To answer the questions, this paper employs case study method and use publicly available ICSID cases. This research shows that some ICSID tribunals have inconsistent reasoning which led to contradictory decisions. Apparently, as some cases indicate ICSID tribunals gave more weight to the need to protect foreign investors rather than host countries’ development interests. As a consequence, inconsistency and ambiguity have led to uncertainty and unpredictability of the forum. This is not only disadvantaged the parties due to inability to foresee the likely outcome of the disputes but also endanger the ICSID tribunals’ credibility as neutral and reliable forum.

Copyrights © 2021






Journal Info

Abbrev

dlr

Publisher

Subject

Law, Crime, Criminology & Criminal Justice

Description

Diponegoro Law Review (Diponegoro Law Rev. - DILREV) is a peer-reviewed journal published by Faculty of Law, Diponegoro University. DILREV published two times a year in April and October. This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely ...