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Compelling Parties To Mediate Investor-State Disputes: No Pressure, No Diamonds?, James M. Claxton

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

There was nothing preordained about arbitration becoming shorthand for investor-state dispute settlement. The ICSID system was built on the assumption that disputing parties would choose conciliation to settle their disputes. Those expectations went unrealized as arbitration rose to prominence, and since that time institutions, parties, and academics have observed that facilitated negotiation could play a greater role in resolving investor-state disputes. A number of domestic court systems have made mediation part of the fabric of dispute resolution through incentives and compulsions to mediate. Drawing on this experience, this manuscript considers how obstacles to the uptake of investor-state mediation might be …