Help Steer OECD Investment Dispute Discussion

The OECD’s Freedom of Investment Roundtable is inviting public comments on a scoping paper on investor-state dispute settlement. (photo credit for OECD logo) The FOI Roundtable is an intergovernmental forum that seeks to help governments design policies that balance openness to international investment with legitimate regulation in the public interest. The scoping paper aims to define the scope of the Roundtable’s future work by identifying important issues. It is structured as follows:
► First, it compares investor-state dispute settlement to other international dispute settlement systems and discusses its interaction with domestic legal systems and policy-making processes;
► Second, it discusses policy issues relating to access to justice, costs, remedies, enforcement, third party financing, arbitrators, forum and treaty shopping, and consistency; 
► Third, it summarizes results from an OECD survey of dispute settlement provisions of 1660 bilateral investment treaties, documenting variations in treaty practice across countries and across time.   
Each section of the scoping paper proposes issues for discussion. (credit for photo at right: promotion poster for Marshall Plan, administered by OECD predecessor)  The OECD invites comments on these issues and proposals for additional investor-state dispute settlement issues for discussion. Unless requested otherwise, comments received will be posted on the OECD website and provided to the governments participating in the Roundtable. The paper is available on the OECD’s website. The deadline for comments is 23 July 2012.