This paper aims at taking stock of the criticism directed at the mechanism of international arbitration for settling disputes between international investors and host states. This paper also analyzes and describes the main attempts at reforming the arbitral model in response to those criticisms,...

This article examines the principles of accountability applied by the European Investment Bank in comparison with the practices of other Multilateral Lending Institutions. After a brief description of the EIB and its activities, the substantive and procedural principles governing the EIB's...

This paper examines how the growing network of bilateral investment agreements and the arbitral practice have gradually shaped the content of international investment law. It is argued that the mere repetition of like provisions in a multitude of investment agreements is not by itself evidence...

This article aims to analyze and interpret the views on international relations and international law expressed in Adam Smith's little studied Lectures on Jurisprudence, in connection with the works of Grotius, Hobbes and Pufendorf. In order to do so, the article first tries to unravel Smith's...

This is the introduction to a book that explores the consequences of European integration for the application of public international law in the European Union and its Member States. As a consequence of the combination of expansion of the regulatory domain of international law and the increasing...

The rise of large emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – or the ‘BRICS’ – increasingly dominates global energy demand. Whereas these countries experience a steady growth of their middle class and increase their population’s access to energy, other parts...

Private standards have increasingly become a contentious issue in the multilateral trading system. The ever increasing number of sector-specific standards developed by businesses, in particular in the food market, may have significant implications for developing countries in terms of market...

The present chapter assesses the possibility of improving the framework of negotiations on international investment agreements, in particular from the viewpoint of developing and least-developed capital-importing countries. The chapter analyses the viability of deliberations on a multilateral...

Commons and global public goods have become essential concepts in the current debate on governance. Many scholars still refer to their use in rational-choice theory, where these concepts relate to the classification of goods based on the objective criteria of (non-) excludability and (non-)...