Taylor St John
About/Bio
Taylor St John is a Researcher at PluriCourts, University of Oslo, on leave from her position as Lecturer in International Relations, University of St Andrews. Her monograph, The Rise of Investor-State Arbitration: Politics, Law, and Unintended Consequences, was published in 2018. She previously held positions at PluriCourts, the London School of Economics, and Oxford, where she received a DPhil. Taylor attends UNCITRAL as an observer from iCourts, University of Copenhagen.
Recently Published
UNCITRAL and ISDS Reform (Hybrid): Islands of Persuasion
Since UNCITRAL Working Group III opened its most recent session on 14 February, many delegates began their interventions by wishing each other a Happy Valentine’s Day. As they did this, we recalled our blog after the first virtual session, in which we wrote that moving online was “like entering into a long distance relationship that remains fueled…
UNCITRAL and ISDS Reform (Hybrid): Season 5 – Watching the Grass Grow
Watching UNCITRAL Working Group III over the years has been a bit like viewing a long-running television series. The beginning of the process was exciting as we met a compelling cast of characters and the plot line began to take shape. Sometimes there was high drama: Which actors would support which kinds of reforms? Which ones would oppose…
UNCITRAL and ISDS Reform (Online): Crossing the Chasm
To text or not to text? That is the question. Or, rather, that was the question at UNCITRAL when Working Group III resumed its deliberations online last week. The Working Group’s focus was structural reforms, first selection and appointment of permanent or fixed-term adjudicators, then an appellate mechanism. As readers of this series know well, states hold different…
Popular articles by Taylor St John
UNCITRAL and ISDS Reform: China’s Proposal
On 19 July 2019, China submitted its proposal on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform to UNCITRAL. A Chinese version is available, though an English translation is yet to be posted. China reaffirms its commitment to ISDS as an important mechanism for resolving investor-state disputes under public international law. However, it takes note of significant…
UNCITRAL and ISDS Reform: Plausible Folk Theories
As observers of the UNCITRAL process, we watch the debates with great interest, writing about the emergence of different camps, giving perspectives on how the process fits within broader geopolitical developments, and offering potential models for moving forward. One thing that we are often struck by is how some of the field’s underlying narratives are…
UNCITRAL and ISDS Reform: Visualising a Flexible Framework
In UNCITRAL, states have broken through the impasse of the incrementalist and systemic reformer camps. They have all agreed that they want to pursue systemic reform, but they have different ideas about what that entails and what to prioritise. In broad terms, agreement seems to be coalescing around three main blocks of reforms: updating some of…