Tension between International Investment Law and European law: Are EU Institutions Contributing to or Disrupting the International Rule of Law

12:00pm – 1:30pm Central European Time (CET).

WAU’s panel on the Tension between International Investment Law and European law will discuss the concerns that have been raised in relation to the legitimacy of investment treaty arbitration in the wake of the recent preliminary opinion of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Moldova v Komstroy, following the Achmea judgment and the EU Commission’s approach to arbitration, the effects of those decisions on bilateral and multilateral treaties and a range of other issues including:

• • How those decisions have snowballed a movement led by various EU Member States to terminate intra-EU BITs?
  • Whether the latest Moldova v Komstroy put the nail in the coffin ending intra-EU investment arbitration? 
  • Whether, consistent with international law, European States may rely on EU law not to comply with investment arbitration awards?
  • Whether European institutions are constructively disrupting international investment law or putting in jeopardy the international rule of law?
  • Whether foreign intra-EU investors have alternative means, such as choosing a seat of arbitration outside of the EU or other means, to ensure compliance with awards favourable to investors? and
  • Whether other States and regions in the world may be inclined to sustain that their domestic or regional law has a similar supra-international flair to the CEJ’s?