Admissibility of Shareholder Claims under Investment Treaties

Shareholder treaty claims risk multiple recovery and prejudice to third parties. Admissibility provides a screening mechanism to address these risks.

Gabriel Bottini (Author)

9781108494526, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 September 2020

296 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

'Investment tribunals deciding shareholder claims tend to regard Barcelona Traction as a quaint relic of the law on diplomatic protection. Gabriel Bottini shows how Barcelona Traction never went away. His nuanced admissibility criteria offer a fresh approach to shareholder standing to prevent double recovery. Through the prism of shareholder claims, he casts new light on linkages between contract and treaty'. Professor Michael Waibel, University of Vienna

This book addresses a growing problem in international law: overlapping claims before national and international jurisdictions. Its contribution is, first, to revisit two pillars of investment arbitration, i.e., shareholders' standing to claim for harm to the company's assets and the contract/treaty claims distinction. These two ideas advance interrelated (and questionable) notions of independence: firstly, independence of shareholder treaty rights in respect of the local company's national law rights and, secondly, independence of treaty claims in respect of national law claims. By uncritically endorsing shareholder standing in indirect claims and the distinctiveness of treaty claims, investment tribunals have overlooked substantive overlaps between contract and treaty claims. The book also proposes specific admissibility criteria. As opposed to strictly jurisdictional approaches to claim overlap, the admissibility approach allows consideration of a broader range of legal reasons, such as risks of multiple recovery and prejudice to third parties.

1. Introduction
2. Admissibility in international investment law
3. Mixed claims commissions and the origins of central concepts
4. Admissibility and shareholder standing
5. Damages in shareholder treaty claims
6. The contract-treaty distinction
7. Applicable law
8. Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Arbitration, mediation & alternative dispute resolution [LNAC5], Settlement of international disputes [LBH], Investment treaties & disputes [LBBM3], International economic & trade law [LBBM], Public international law [LBB], Law & society [LAQ], Investment & securities [KFFM]