Catharine Titi

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Law

The ongoing reform of investor-state dispute settlement (“ISDS”) underlines the pertinence of an old question that has received various and conflicting answers: Is investment arbitration a public or private method of dispute settlement? A key criticism leveled at investment treaty arbitration is that public interest disputes are decided by a system...

The costs of accessing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) are notoriously high. International investment treaties and investment dispute settlement in particular have been primarily designed with large investors in mind – those with the means to access an international tribunal –, while small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual...

Equity has been sorely lacking in pandemic preparedness and response, and COVID-19 is but the latest example (O’Cuinn and Switzer, 2019; Rourke, 2019). The response to COVID-19 was characterised by nationalism, inequity in access to diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics and personal protective equipment (PPE) between the Global North and the Global S...

This paper reviews the relationship between international investment agreements (IIAs) and foreign direct investment (FDI). It is organised in two parts. The first part explores the generic structure of IIAs and highlights the components that are particularly relevant to FDI. It then gives an overview of the specific content of investment treaties...

International treaties protect cultural heritage and in certain cases provide mechanisms that allow unlawfully removed heritage to be returned to where it was taken from. This chapter explores treaty law in relation to the Parthenon marbles case. It considers, on the one hand, the conventions on the protection of cultural heritage and their limitat...

This chapter surveys the acquisition of the Parthenon marbles by the UK government. The chapter enquires into the summary investigation of the select committee and queries the bona fide nature of the purchase of Elgin’s collection by the UK government. It examines critically the international law pertaining to the protection of cultural heritage in...

This chapter summarises the book’s main findings and concludes with an outlook on the future. It argues that the process for the return of the Parthenon marbles has already begun and that the question is no longer whether the marbles will be repatriated but rather when.

This chapter turns to the Parthenon marbles and the British Museum. First, the chapter reviews the marbles’ custodianship by the British Museum. This part of the chapter includes a discussion of the Duveen scouring scandal, which was kept secret for the best part of 60 years and which resulted in irreparable damage to all the metopes, most of the f...

The ethics of collecting and retaining cultural property have been evolving and international law is changing in consequence. States—and museums—return cultural items that were unlawfully acquired in the past, regardless of whether they are obliged to do so under the non-retroactive conventions. They do so without reference to the political situati...

This chapter gives an account of Elgin’s actions and of the removal and eventual transportation of the marbles to England, and it assesses their lawfulness. The chapter outlines Elgin’s plan from conception to execution, it canvasses the contested firman and its purported terms, and it reviews the conditions that made it possible for his agents to...

This chapter contains the book’s annex, the statement of the trustees of the British Museum on the Parthenon marbles (© 2022 The Trustees of the British Museum).

This chapter canvasses specific issues of jurisdiction and admissibility and establishes the interstate nature of the Parthenon marbles case. The discussion begins with an enquiry into the nature of the Parthenon marbles conundrum as a legal case raising legal questions, before turning to the issue of attribution. Taking into account the status of...

This chapter documents the Greek demands for the return of the marbles over the years. It is a common misconception that the first official request for the marbles’ repatriation was made in the 1980s. In reality, Greece put forward the first formal claim only a handful of years after its recognition as an independent state. The year was 1836. Much...

This chapter takes us on a journey through time to explore the Parthenon as a monument of cultural and political significance, as a temple, and as an emblem of high classical art. The chapter contextualises the creation of the Parthenon in the Athenian golden age, it appraises its iconography, its unique symbolism and importance, and it studies its...

This chapter enquires into the available dispute settlement options. The chapter assesses the diplomatic and legal means that may be resorted to in order to settle the Parthenon marbles dispute. In particular, it considers the possibility of negotiations, mediation, arbitration, and judicial settlement before the ICJ and the European Court of Human...

The Parthenon marbles case is the most famous international cultural heritage dispute concerning repatriation of looted antiquities, the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum’s ‘Elgin Collection’. The case has polarised observers ever since Elgin had the marbles hacked out of the ancient temple at the turn of the 19th century in Ottoman-occupied...

This extensive volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law probes the essential concepts, contemporary research, and key elements of law at the intersection of international trade and international environmental law. Its succinct, structured entries provide a definitive and comprehensive assessment of the interactions between these fields...

Just as equitable considerations can inform a court or tribunal’s decision in the early phases of the adjudicatory process, so equity may have a role to play in fixing the amount of compensation, in allocating costs, and in deciding whether to grant security for costs. The chapter proceeds in two parts. First, it considers equity in the reasoning o...

The book’s concluding chapter summarises its main findings and arguments. The book has tried to make sense of the legal concept of equity as it operates in the international law of the 21st century, setting it on a new basis and dealing with some common misconceptions about it. The thrust of its argument is that equity is a legal concept and a sour...

The chapter analyses variations on equity and related concepts that originate in equity. In particular, it studies equality, reasonableness, estoppel, acquiescence, good faith, unjust enrichment, the clean hands doctrine, abuse of rights, and proportionality. The chapter probes these concepts to demonstrate that equity lies deep in the internationa...

The chapter documents the complex relationship between, on the one hand, equity and international law and, on the other, principles and rules, and it discusses equity as a source of international law. The thrust of its argument is that equity is a source of international law, which means that international adjudicators have the power to apply it. W...

The chapter critically assesses the traditional distinction between three types of equity: equity infra , praeter , and contra legem . It argues that while this taxonomy offers a conceptual framework to help comprehend three roles that equity can assume, it remains a heuristic construct; strict divisions between different kinds of equity are unsust...

If court statutes and arbitration rules often provide for ex aequo et bono adjudication, international adjudicatory bodies rarely use it. Less successful than its predecessor, absolute equity, ex aequo et bono adjudication is limited in contemporary times to less than a handful of investment arbitration cases. The chapter considers ex aequo et bono...

‘The way is equity, the end is justice’, wrote the umpire in the Aroa Mines case. The chapter probes the ethical foundations of equity in international law and argues that the overarching purpose of equity is to do justice. In this light, it surveys equity as corrective, distributive, and supplementary justice. Under the heading of corrective justi...

Equitable considerations have been present in human societies for unfathomable aeons. From ancient Greece and Rome to modern times, through ecclesiastical law and the medieval English Chancery, equity has introduced considerations of fairness in legal thought and has helped mitigate the harshness of draconian laws. What is considered equitable has...

Equity first made its way in international decision-making through claims commissions and early arbitration tribunals, whereupon it started to be incorporated in the jurisprudence of international courts. Today, equity in international law is often associated with ICJ judgments, especially those involving maritime boundary delimitation. Recourse to...

Legal reasoning lies at the heart of the interpretation of the facts, it determines the application of law to the facts or the award of compensation as a result of a finding of liability, and it is of the utmost importance. Laws, court statutes, and arbitration rules require that judgments and awards be reasoned, so that the losing party, as well a...

Traditional studies on actors in international investment law have tended to concentrate on arbitrators, claimant investors and respondent states. Yet this focus on the “principal” players in investment dispute settlement has allowed a number of other seminal actors to be neglected. This book seeks to redress this imbalance by turning the spotlight...

Arguably, an international judge or arbitrator’s identity can affect international judicial or arbitral decision-making. Relevant elements of identity include: nationality, ethnicity, country of legal education, public or private international law background, extent of industrialization or development of home country, and socio-economic background....

International courts and tribunals hold the power to decide on questions involving sovereignty over territory, grave human rights violations, international crimes, or millions of euros’ worth of economic interests. Judges and arbitrators are the ‘faces’ and arguably the drivers of international adjudication—yet certain groups tend to be overreprese...

In the era of the backlash against investor-State dispute settlement, the costs of proceedings have been a prime object of criticism. This article examines the problem of excessive costs and insufficient recoverability of costs awards. Firstly, it examines the issue of excessive costs in relation to both party costs (fees and expenses of counsel, e...

Criticism of the quality of investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) decision-making often focuses on inconsistency (comparing ISDS decisions), and less frequently, incorrectness (evaluating individual ISDS decisions on a standalone basis). This article situates incorrect ISDS decision-making within the broader context of public international law a...

This EYIEL special issue examines the interaction between international investment law and competition law. Although issues related to both international investment law and competition law arise regularly in international legal practice and are examined together, scholarly analysis largely treats them as parallel universes. As a result their actual...

A principle with a long pedigree, equity has been present in legal thought and in municipal legal systems since antiquity. Introduced in international legal decisions through claims commissions and arbitral tribunals, equity became progressively part and parcel of the international law mainstream. This book provides a systematic and comprehensive s...

The law applicable to investment disputes is of paramount importance because it can be a determinant of the outcome of the dispute. Disputing parties can choose the law applicable to their dispute. This derives from the principle of party autonomy in international arbitration. The parties’ choice of the applicable law often takes place in tandem wi...

The right to regulate has emerged as a sine qua non of new generation investment agreements and that much is true of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada. While Canada embraced the right to regulate in the early to mid-2000s, the right to regulate became a concern in the EU since the entry into force of th...

Assessing the extent to which armed conflict impacts the obligations that states have towards foreign investors and their investments under international investment treaties requires considering a wide range of issues, many of which are systemic in nature. These include substantive and procedural topics, not only with regard to international invest...

In 2016 and 2017, states continued their engagement with international investment law. A small minority of states displayed scepticism or tried to disengage themselves from their investment law obligations. This chapter addresses select institutional developments in international investment law in 2016 and in the first three quarters (Q1–3) of 2017...

With multilateral negotiations to reform investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) now underway, it is legitimate to wonder about the outcome. Many seem to hope for a single, global reform, but that may be unrealistic in the near future. Indeed, the article by Sergio Puig and Gregory Shaffer and the essay by Anthea Roberts both suggest that states a...

Cambridge Core - International Relations and International Organisations - The Future of International Economic Integration - edited by Gillian Moon

Although dissents are not generally encouraged in international arbitration, they are a reality of investment treaty disputes. About one in five cases includes at least one separate or dissenting opinion. The ICSID Convention is rare among investment arbitration rules to expressly recognise the right of the arbitrator to attach his or her personal...

There is little doubt that res iudicata is a general principle of law. But its application in investment treaty arbitration remains varied. A recent fracture in the case law of investment tribunals concerns the apparent dilemma of the res iudicata effect, if any, of interlocutory, i.e. pre-award, decisions rendered under the ICSID Convention. The a...

Recent decades have witnessed the growing malaise of multilateralism within international economic governance and an inclination for bilateralism and tailor-made solutions. And yet procedural multilateralism does exist in international investment law. The chapter assesses the Mauritius Convention and a similar initiative, the OECD’s Multilateral Co...

Edição Completa / Complete Issue

Edição Completa / Complete Issue

The last 30 years in the history of international investment law witnessed the emergence of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) as the definitive method for the resolution of investment disputes, and the expanding role of the investor in the same. Investment dispute settlement has become largely synonymous with a system that involves an invest...

The relationship between international investment law and world cultural heritage is often explored from the prism of their professed mutual incompatibility: the former's object is the protection of economic interests and the latter's the preservation of world cultural heritage. The two often clash. Investment rights, endowed with robust enforcemen...

International Investment Law in Latin America/Derecho Internacional de las Inversiones en América Latina edited by Tanzi Attila , Asteriti Alessandra , Lazo Rodrigo Polanco , and Turrini Paolo Leiden: Brill | Nijhoff, 2016; 869 pp. € 239,00, Hardback - Volume 7 Issue 4 - Catharine Titi

In the last decade, international investment law has been on a trajectory of rapid evolution with reform high on agenda priorities. Reform requires a reconciliation of competing interests, which is generally so difficult to achieve that it is often unclear whether an option constitutes ‘reform’ or unwanted change. Two specific treaty provisions, th...

In recent years, the negotiation and conclusion of international investment agreements (IIAs) in Latin America has gone hand-in-hand with a rethinking of investment standards and the elaboration of new IIA models. This is evident, among others, in Brazil’s cooperation and facilitation investment agreements (CFIAs), the continuing negotiations on th...

International investment law remains a fast evolving and vibrant field of law with ongoing and recently-concluded investment treaty negotiations continually altering the status quo. It is a system at a crossroads of reform, generally focused on safeguarding the right of the host state to regulate and on improving the investor-state dispute settleme...

Rampant discontent with the current system that governs the protection of international investment and the functioning of investment tribunals has led to a widespread view that there is an urgent need for reform. This is particularly pronounced in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The European Union (EU) has responded to this...

The relationship between international investment law and world cultural heritage is often explored from the prism of their professed mutual incompatibility: the former’s object is the protection of economic interests and the latter’s the preservation of world cultural heritage. The two often clash. Investment rights, endowed with robust enforcemen...

For about half a century, the European investment treaty model has been associated with European Union (EU) member states’ bilateral investment treaty practice, often referred to as their ‘best practices’. Member state bilateral investment treaties, which are liberal instruments strongly protective of investor interests, have remained relatively un...

Conceived from its inception as a tool for the depoliticization of disputes involving a foreign investor and a sovereign state, Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) has emerged as a popular alternative to state justice and diplomatic protection and it has evolved into the centrepiece and guarantor of the international system of investment prote...

One of the seminal characteristics of most modern–day international investment agreements (IIAs) is the provision for access to investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS), through which an investor alleging a violation of the agreement may directly claim against its host State in international arbitration. Protection standards offered to investors th...

The purpose of the handbook is to provide practitioners and legal scholars with a comprehensive overview and a systematic assessment of the relevant cases and issues in the field of international investment law. The handbook thus aims at giving both a first overview as well as a detailed insight into all aspects of investment law. The handbook prov...

The purpose of the handbook is to provide practitioners and legal scholars with a comprehensive overview and a systematic assessment of the relevant cases and issues in the field of international investment law. The handbook thus aims at giving both a first overview as well as a detailed insight into all aspects of investment law. The handbook prov...

Adopted by a large number of states that participate in the international system of the protection of cross-border investment, model bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are negotiating templates that encapsulate a government’s investment treaty-making goals and serve as a practical tool for investment negotiators in order to minimise related trans...

eu negotiations over the first EU-wide investment treaties are held in the absence of a formal negotiating model. And yet, new formulations of old standards underline the shift from old generation agreements and the so-called Member States’ ‘gold standard’ to the nascent ‘eu platinum standard’. In this light, the present chapter explores full prote...

The habitual description of the Latin American take on investment arbitration as one of hostility fails to capture the complexity and fine nuances of the relationship between Latin America and the investor-state dispute resolution mechanism. The article reconsiders the notion of hostility by canvassing the historical context of Latin American inves...

This chapter attempts to demonstrate, the evolution of investment relations between the Europe (EU) and China, and the conclusion of the prospective EU-China investment agreement, a venture not devoid of challenges that will likely frame the relationship between the two economies, is a very important policy issue for both partners. In a worldwide s...

EU negotiations over the first EU-wide investment treaties are held in the absence of a formal negotiating model. And yet, new formulations of old standards underline the shift from old generation agreements and the so-called Member States’ ‘gold standard’ to the nascent ‘EU platinum standard’. In this light, the present chapter explores full prote...

A vibrant and constantly evolving legal field, international investment law continues to grow in significance and, as a corollary, it remains at the forefront of an increasing amount of attention—and scrutiny—from both public policymakers and relevant sections of the public alike. Developments at the regional as well as at the global level continue...