Investment arbitration and the rule of law: How transparency impacts on domestic accountability

Book chapter


Vassileva, R. 2024. Investment arbitration and the rule of law: How transparency impacts on domestic accountability. in: Heidemann, M. and Andenas, M. (ed.) Commercial Contract Law and Arbitration: From Assignments to Unfair Terms Routledge. pp. 46-77
Chapter titleInvestment arbitration and the rule of law: How transparency impacts on domestic accountability
AuthorsVassileva, R.
Abstract

Realising its role in developing international law and enhancing legal certainty, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has been at the forefront of promoting transparency both at the pre-award and post-award stages within the limits of the ICSID Convention. Despite these efforts, however, ICSID can still be criticised from a rule of law standpoint. There seems to be a mismatch between what information about arbitration proceedings ICSID’s current rules allow to be made public and what information civil society expects to access. Even after the major amendments of 2022, ICSID’s rules contain loopholes that allow states acting in bad faith to deceive the public about the outcome in ICSID proceedings. This is regrettable since violations of investors’ rights may involve deliberate wrongdoings by governments and public officials. Meanwhile, states compensate investors for such breaches with taxpayers’ money. Because of the limited access to information, civil society cannot exercise its role in checks and balances – namely, holding those responsible for the wrongdoing accountable and pushing for legislative changes that can prevent similar abuses of power in the future. After showcasing three concrete examples that illustrate how states have taken advantage of the loopholes in ICSID’s rules to hide the true outcome in ICSID proceedings, this chapter makes concrete recommendations about what reforms are necessary to curtail such bad faith behaviour in the future.

Sustainable Development Goals16 Peace, justice and strong institutions
Page range46-77
Book titleCommercial Contract Law and Arbitration: From Assignments to Unfair Terms
EditorsHeidemann, M. and Andenas, M.
PublisherRoutledge
ISBN
Hardcover9781032632537
Electronic9781003463986
Copyright Year2024
Publication dates
Online30 Apr 2024
Print30 Apr 2024
Publication process dates
Deposited30 Sep 2022
Accepted20 Sep 2022
Output statusIn press
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Commercial Contract Law and Arbitration: From Assignments to Unfair Terms on 30 April 2024, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781032632537 .
It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003463986-5
Related Output
Is part ofhttps://doi.org/10.4324/9781003463986
Is part ofhttps://www.routledge.com/9781032632537
LanguageEnglish
Permalink -

https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/89zz0

Restricted files

Accepted author manuscript

  • 78
    total views
  • 1
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Bulgaria’s constitutional drama and the EU Commission’s rose-colored glasses
Vassileva, R. 2024. Bulgaria’s constitutional drama and the EU Commission’s rose-colored glasses. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.59704/f8ab8d794882e79f
The EPPO as a domesticated cat: a perspective from Bulgaria
Vassileva, R. 2024. The EPPO as a domesticated cat: a perspective from Bulgaria. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.59704/3e330d45f4524229
The rise of the pro-Putin “Revival” party in Bulgaria
Vassileva, R. 2024. The rise of the pro-Putin “Revival” party in Bulgaria. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
Bulgaria’s Faustian bargain and the betrayal of the 2020 anti-corruption protests
Vassileva, R. 2024. Bulgaria’s Faustian bargain and the betrayal of the 2020 anti-corruption protests. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
Lyuben Dikov, Filippo Vassalli, and Karl Llewellyn: three scholars who may hold a key to understanding some peculiar similarities between Bulgarian, Italian, and US Law
Vassileva, R. 2024. Lyuben Dikov, Filippo Vassalli, and Karl Llewellyn: three scholars who may hold a key to understanding some peculiar similarities between Bulgarian, Italian, and US Law. British Association of Comparative Law.
Environmental delicts and post-communist private law in Bulgaria: time for reforms in view of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal?
Vassileva, R. 2024. Environmental delicts and post-communist private law in Bulgaria: time for reforms in view of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal? in: Santos Silva, M., Nicolussi, A., Wendehorst, C., Coderch, P., Clément, M. and Zoll, F. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Private Law and Sustainability Routledge.
Legal change and the role of the scholar: scratching beneath the surface of comparative taxonomies
Vassileva, R. 2024. Legal change and the role of the scholar: scratching beneath the surface of comparative taxonomies. Studia Iuridica. 99, pp. 615-637. https://doi.org/10.31338/2544-3135.si.2024-99.36
Review of Kriszta Kovács (ed), The Jurisprudence of Particularism: National Identity Claims in Central Europe (Bloomsbury Publishing 2023), ISBN: 9781509960125
Vassileva, R. 2023. Review of Kriszta Kovács (ed), The Jurisprudence of Particularism: National Identity Claims in Central Europe (Bloomsbury Publishing 2023), ISBN: 9781509960125. British Association of Comparative Law.
At a snail’s pace: How EU bureaucracy undermines fundamental rights
Vassileva, R. 2023. At a snail’s pace: How EU bureaucracy undermines fundamental rights. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.59704/cb1c6dfd944241bf
Concluding remarks: Interwar dialogues and the patterns of legal change
Vassileva, R. 2023. Concluding remarks: Interwar dialogues and the patterns of legal change. British Association of Comparative Law.
Bulgaria’s mafia state and the failure of the CVM
Vassileva, R. 2023. Bulgaria’s mafia state and the failure of the CVM. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20230613-231059-0
Bulgaria’s election spiral: the anatomy of disappointment
Vassileva, R. 2023. Bulgaria’s election spiral: the anatomy of disappointment. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
Bulgaria’s deepening political crisis: An opportunity to separate the wheat from the chaff
Vassileva, R. 2023. Bulgaria’s deepening political crisis: An opportunity to separate the wheat from the chaff. Institute of Communication Studies (ICS).
After yet another election, where are you heading Bulgaria?
Vassileva, R. 2022. After yet another election, where are you heading Bulgaria? Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
Extradition to Russia from an EU member state: judicial incompetence, political bias, or just another sign of rule of law decay?
Vassileva, R. 2022. Extradition to Russia from an EU member state: judicial incompetence, political bias, or just another sign of rule of law decay? Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20220818-181747-0
Who is who in the Bulgarian coup?
Vassileva, R. 2022. Who is who in the Bulgarian coup? Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
The Bulgarian-Macedonian hala meets EU hypocrisy
Vassileva, R. 2022. The Bulgarian-Macedonian hala meets EU hypocrisy. Institute of Communication Studies (ICS).
Bulgarian Private Law at Crossroads (Intersentia 2022)
Vassileva, R. 2022. Bulgarian Private Law at Crossroads (Intersentia 2022). British Association of Comparative Law.
Bulgarian private law at crossroads
Vassileva, R. 2022. Bulgarian private law at crossroads. Cambridge, UK Intersentia.
Bulgaria’s failed specialized criminal justice experiment
Vassileva, R. 2022. Bulgaria’s failed specialized criminal justice experiment. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20220429-182318-0
Bulgaria's institutional wars
Vassileva, R. 2022. Bulgaria's institutional wars. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
Impunity: the unbearable difficulty of dismissing a General Prosecutor for abuses of office and other crimes
Vassileva, R. 2022. Impunity: the unbearable difficulty of dismissing a General Prosecutor for abuses of office and other crimes. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20220318-121202-0
A perfect storm: the extraordinary constitutional attack against the Istanbul Convention in Bulgaria
Vassileva, R. 2022. A perfect storm: the extraordinary constitutional attack against the Istanbul Convention in Bulgaria. Osteuropa Recht. 68 (1), pp. 78-96. https://doi.org/10.5771/0030-6444-2022-1-78
Three ways to bolster flawed AML/CFT in the EU
Demetriades, P. and Vassileva, R. 2021. Three ways to bolster flawed AML/CFT in the EU. Central Banking Journal. XXXII (1).
The end of an autocratic era? Bulgaria’s new regular government
Vassileva, R. 2021. The end of an autocratic era? Bulgaria’s new regular government. Institute of Communication Studies (ICS).
Yellow light for disciplining inconvenient judges? The ECtHR’s ambivalent judgment in Todorova v Bulgaria
Vassileva, R. 2021. Yellow light for disciplining inconvenient judges? The ECtHR’s ambivalent judgment in Todorova v Bulgaria. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20211105-011230-0
Snap parliamentary elections in July: civil society v Bulgaria’s autocracy
Vassileva, R. 2021. Snap parliamentary elections in July: civil society v Bulgaria’s autocracy. Institute of Communication Studies (ICS).
Framing and raiding: Bulgaria’s Kafkaesque Prosecutor’s Office
Vassileva, R. 2021. Framing and raiding: Bulgaria’s Kafkaesque Prosecutor’s Office. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20210609-123826-0
Short but sweet: Bulgaria's short-lived 45th National Assembly as a first step towards reforms
Vassileva, R. 2021. Short but sweet: Bulgaria's short-lived 45th National Assembly as a first step towards reforms. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20210512-181802-0
Snap elections in Bulgaria: who is ready for political suicide?
Vassileva, R. 2021. Snap elections in Bulgaria: who is ready for political suicide? Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.
Bulgaria’s media jungle: the good, the bad and the ugly
Vassileva, R. 2021. Bulgaria’s media jungle: the good, the bad and the ugly. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.