The international minimum standard and fair and equitable treatment

Author: Dr Martins Paparinskis, UCL Laws
Chair: Professor Philippe Sands QC, UCL Laws
Discussants: Andrew Lang (LSE), Kate Miles (University of Cambridge) and Samuel Wordsworth QC (Essex Court Chambers)
Admission: Free
Accreditation: This event is accredited with 1 CPD hour with the SRA (BSB pending)

About the book

In 1996, Judge Rosalyn Higgins noted that ‘fair and equitable treatment’ was a legal term of art well known in the field of overseas investment protection. In 2015, fair and equitable treatment has emerged as a rule of considerable practical importance in dispute settlement on the basis of investment treaties. According to the most recent review of investment arbitrations conducted by UNCTAD, ‘[o]f the seven decisions finding States liable [that were rendered in 2013], five found a violation of the fair and equitable treatment (FET) provision and two of the expropriation provision’ (UNCTAD, Recent Developments in Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), IIA Issues Note no 1/2014, 10).

Similarly, in 2012, ‘[o]f the twelve decisions finding State’s liability, six found a violation of the FET provision, five of the expropriation provision, two of the umbrella clause and one of the prohibition of certain performance requirements’, (UNCTAD), ‘Recent Developments in Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)’ (IIA Issues Note no 1/2013) 5).

Debates about the best approach to interpretation and application of fair and equitable treatment therefore touch upon the most important aspects of contemporary international investment law. The launch of the paperback edition of Martins Paparinskis new book, The International Minimum Standard and Fair and Equitable Treatment (OUP, 2014) provides an opportunity for a reflection upon these issues.

About the author

Martins Paparinskis is Lecturer at Faculty of Laws, University College London. He is a general international lawyer with a particular interest in international economic law and international dispute settlement. Martins is a Book Review Editor of the Journal of World Investment and Trade, a member of the Academic Review Board of the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law, a member of the International Law Association’s Study Group on the Use of Domestic Law Principles for the Development of International Law, and a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Non-State Actors.

In January 2014, he was designated to the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. In September 2014, Oxford University Press published a paperback edition of his monograph on The International Minimum Standard and Fair and Equitable Treatment, with an extensive new introduction and an appendix of the discussion of the book on EJIL:Talk! blog.