Trade and investment treaties have proliferated throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Their dispute resolution mechanisms are important in entrenching market access commitments, especially when providing for direct claims by firms against states. But the Global Financial Crisis has also heightened...

This paper offers some broader theoretical perspectives on the already wide-ranging and very thought-provoking keynote speech by Professor Filip De Ly, at the Queen Mary University of London conference in April 2015 celebrating the 30th anniversary of its School of International Arbitration. The...

This paper outlines the historical evolution of Australia's foreign direct investment (FDI) regulation generally, under national law and more recently bilateral investment treaties (BITs) or investment chapters of free trade agreements (FTAs). This sets the stage for closer analysis of the...

This paper outlines our collaborative research project for 2014-16, aimed at evaluating the economic and legal risks associated with the Australian Government's recent approach to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), and broader implications for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and...

Treaty-based investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is attracting increasing public debate. Particular concerns involve treaty provisions allowing investors from the home state to initiate arbitration claims directly against the host state for allegedly violating substantive rights (eg...

Based on an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research project (2014-7) assessing international investment treaty dispute management more broadly, this paper (abridged from a related project) introduces part of our joint project examining key questions around the effect of investment...

This paper provides the first-ever detailed analysis of the dispute resolution provisions contained in Japan's burgeoning international investment treaties (BITs and FTAs or EPAs). That development is also located in the context of Japan's inbound and outbound flows in foreign investment and the...

This article, part of an interdisciplinary Asia-focused book project, addresses for Japan the difficult practical and policy question facing arbitration tribunals when a foreign investor claims mistreatment by a host state but the latter alleges that the investment was tainted by corruption or...

States across Asia have long engaged in international investment treaty making, and to a lesser extent in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) proceedings. Engagement has intensified partly as bilateral investment treaties (BITs) proliferated especially from the 1990s, but also Asian states...