Law Commons^™

Theorizing Responsibility In The Investor State Dispute Resolution System, Kristen Boon

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Investor-State Dispute System (“ISDS”) permits investors to sue states when their investments are injured. The system was designed to protect investors and impose responsibilities on states; it is uncontroversial to say that the ISDS system is one-sided. But a chorus of voices is now asking: should investors have responsibilities too? The narrative is one of injustice, driven by the perception that states have signed on to a system that has left them with large financial exposure to investors. This viewpoint has been reinforced, in the eyes of some, by the influence of big business, and by state losses …

Judging International Judgments, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

What effect should rulings of international courts have in domestic courts? In the U.S., debate has centered on a series of rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the application of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). The VCCR, a multilateral treaty that the United States ratified in 1969, grants foreign nationals the right to seek the assistance of their consulates in the event that local authorities arrest them. An Optional Protocol to the VCCR gives the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes relating to the interpretation and application of the treaty. Since the late 1990s, the ICJ repeatedly …

Resolving Treaty Conflicts, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

The viability of international law rests largely on the viability of treaties as a source of law. In the second half of the twentieth century, the international state system was supported by the development of treaties. States focused the majority of their regime-building efforts on three sets of concerns: restraining interstate conflict, securing human rights, and managing the economic system. States used treaties as the primary tool in the construction of these international institutions and in the codification of these norms. Moreover, treaties shift issues from the political arena into a juridical, rule-based, forum.

The very success of treaties as …