Manifestations of Coherence and Investor-State Arbitration

A novel framework for understanding the role and relevance of coherence in international dispute settlement and judicial reasoning.

Charalampos Giannakopoulos (Author)

9781009153867, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 June 2025

357 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.518 kg

''Manifestations of Coherence' is a brilliant piece of scholarship. By the end of the book, the reader will have learned a great deal about coherence and its role in international law, in general, and international investment law, in particular.… It is exceptionally well researched, rife with relevant and accurate case studies that accurately make the points they are tasked to make. For this reason alone, this book is a sorely needed contribution to the scholarship on the theory of international investment law, as well as on coherence in general, as its conclusions are pervasive throughout international adjudication beyond investment arbitration. It will certainly provide valuable guidance to arbitrators, counsel as well as policy and treaty makers active in the field.' Güneş Ünüvar, European Journal of International Law

Coherence is highly valued in law. It is especially sought after in investor-state dispute settlement, where charges of incoherence in arbitral awards have long been raised by states and scholars. Yet coherence is a largely underexplored notion in international law. Often, it is treated as a mere ideal to strive towards or simply as a different way to describe the legal consistency of judicial outcomes. This book takes a different approach. It sees coherence as an independent concept having two dimensions: a substantive and a methodological one. Both are critically important for legal reasoning by international courts and tribunals, including by investor-state tribunals, and the book illustrates through several case studies some of the ways this conclusion is borne out in practice. A fuller understanding of coherence in international law has implications for our understanding of the concept of law, the practice of legal reasoning, and judicial professional ethics.

Introduction
1. The content of coherence
2. Coherence and legal reasoning
3. Two models for coherence
4. Coherence and the interpretation of treaties
5. Coherence and analogical thinking
6. Coherence as reflexivity
7. Coherence as moral responsibility
Coda: coherence and investor-state dispute settlement reform
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Arbitration, mediation & alternative dispute resolution [LNAC5], International economic & trade law [LBBM], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA]