Introduction This post addresses issues being considered in the UNCITRAL Working Group III process in relation to the design of a multilateral instrument on investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS) reform (hereinafter an ‘MIIR’). An MIIR is envisioned as the legal mechanism for applying the various reform options being developed by UNCITRAL Working Group III to the extensive network of existing investment treaties. A first draft of an MIIR was published by the UNCITRAL secretariat in July 2024 (A/CN.9/WG.III/WP.246) and this was discussed by Working Group III in the first part of its Fifty-First session in February 2025 (A/CN.9/1196 paras 31–94) and in its Forty-Ninth session in September 2024 (A/CN.9/1194 paras 105–121). Ahead of the Working Group’s February 2025 session, some participants also made written submissions on the topic of an MIIR, including the European Union (EU) and the United States.
UNCITRAL
Compliance through Enforcement in ISDS: What can UNCITRAL Working Group III learn from the ECtHR?
The ISDS reform process at UNCITRAL Working Group III provides a unique opportunity to consider new institutional dispute settlement designs. As EJIL:Talk! Readers will know from earlier blogs on this reform process, a standing mechanism to resolve investment disputes is one of the key proposals in the strengthening of the institutional design, with a Draft Statute…
How a documentary film can help UNCITRAL Working Group III think through ISDS reform
As states explore options to reform investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), they can draw on a growing body of grounded perspectives about how the system works in practice and how it is experienced by those involved in or affected by investment disputes. The Tribunal, a documentary film directed by Malcolm Rogge in collaboration…
The Mandate Conundrum: Reflections on the 46th Session of the UNCITRAL Working Group III on ISDS Reform
The UNCITRAL Working Group III convened in Vienna between 9 and 13 October 2023 for its 46th session to discuss the establishment of an advisory centre on international investment law, which would be tasked to provide legal and technical assistance in connection with investor-State disputes. In addition, it would tackle a number of…
Shoehorning Substance into a Procedural Mandate? The Right to Regulate and UNCITRAL Working Group III
This post addresses Draft Provision 12, on ‘Right to Regulate’, in the recent ‘Draft Provisions on Procedural and Cross-Cutting Issues’ that were published by the UNCITRAL Secretariat in late July and will be discussed at UNCITRAL Working Group III’s next session in October 2023 (A/CN.9/WG.III/WP.229 [11]). The Draft Provisions have been ‘prepared…