Community Perspectives in Investor-State Arbitration

The governance of the global economy has been at the centre of extensive and often polarised debates. International arbitrations to settle investment disputes between businesses and states - a system commonly referred to as 'investor-state arbitration' - have come to crystallise wider concerns about the balance of public and corporate interests in economic governance. One of the major questions is whether investor-state arbitration enables proper consideration of the rights, interests and perspectives of others who are affected by, but not party to, the dispute. Although these proceedings pit an investor against a state, the underlying dispute often also involves third parties.