Adjudicating Trade and Investment Disputes
Convergence or Divergence?

A multi-disciplinary, multi-author analysis of convergence and divergence between trade and international dispute settlement.

Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi (Edited by), Daniel Behn (Edited by), Malcolm Langford (Edited by)

9781108487405, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 July 2020

320 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.65 kg

'Adjudicating Trade and Investment Disputes is an excellent, timely contribution to the growing field of scholarship on the overlap between the two most important spheres of international economic law.' David Collins, International Trade Law & Regulation

Recent trends suggest that international economic law may be witnessing a renaissance of convergence – both parallel and intersectional. The adjudicative process also reveals signs of convergence. These diverse claims of convergence are of legal, empirical and normative interest. Yet, convergence discourse also warrants scepticism. This volume contributes to both the general debate on the fragmentation of international law and the narrower discourse concerning the interplay between international trade and investment, focusing on dispute settlement. It moves beyond broad observations or singular case studies to provide an informed and wide-reaching assessment by investigating multiple standards, processes, mechanisms and behaviours. Methodologically, a normative stance is largely eschewed in favour of a range of 'doctrinal,' quantitative and qualitative methods that are used to address the research questions. Furthermore, in determining the extent of convergence or divergence, it is important to recognize that there is no bright line or clear yardstick for determining its nature or degree.

1. Convergence, divergence, and international economic dispute settlement: a framework Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi, Daniel Behn and Malcolm Langford
Part I. Dispute System Design: 2. Investment chapters in PTAs and their impact on adjudicative convergence Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi and Maxim Usynin
3. The EU investment court system and its resemblance to the WTO Appellate Body? Hannes Lenk
4. Entry rights and investments in services: adjudicatory convergence between regimes? Murilo Lubambo
Part II. Use of Precedent Across Regimes: 5. Approaches to external precedent: the invocation of international jurisprudence in investment arbitration and WTO dispute settlement Niccolò Ridi
6. Engagement between international trade and investment adjudicators Michelle Q. Zang
Part III. Interpretive Convergence and Adjudicative Behaviour: 7. Inherent powers of the WTO Appellate Body and ICSID tribunals. a tale of cautious convergence Ridhi Kabra
8. The use of object and purpose by trade and investment adjudicators: convergence without interaction Graham Cook
9. Assessing convergence between international investment law and international trade law through interpretative commissions/committees: a case of ambivalence? Yuliya Chernykh
10. Regime responsiveness Malcolm Langford, Cosette D. Creamer and Daniel Behn
11 Epilogue: 'convergence' is a many-splendored thing José E. Alvarez.

Subject Areas: International trade [KCLT], International economics [KCL], Economics [KC], Economics, finance, business & management [K]