Law Commons^™

Reform Of Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Lessons From International Uniform Law, Joshua D H Karton

Joshua Karton

This article argues that significant improvements in the quality and consistency of decision-making in investor-state arbitration can be achieved without taking such drastic (and possibly unachievable) steps as creating a global appellate body or standing international investment court, or enacting a new treaty that codifies the substantive obligations of international investment law for all signatory states. The article draws on the experience of the international uniform law movement to suggest realistic and achievable steps that could nevertheless be effective.

Although investor-state arbitration and uniform law are not entirely analogous, they do share some important similarities. In particular, they share the …

Canadian Courts And Uniform Interpretation - An Empirical Reality Check, Joshua D H Karton, Samantha Wynne

Joshua Karton

The uniform interpretation of uniform law instruments is justifiably a preoccupation of the international uniform law community. However, despite the issue’s importance to the success of legal harmonisation efforts, remarkably little is known about how national courts actually interpret international uniform laws. The literature remains almost entirely anecdotal; no systematic study has been made of the courts of even one state or region to determine whether, as a group, they do or do not interpret international uniform law instruments with an eye to the international legal context.

This article describes an empirical study of Canadian courts’ interpretations of five representative …

Global Law: The Spontaneous, Gradual Emergence Of A New Legal Order, Joshua D H Karton

Joshua Karton

This article argues that the debate over whether international law can apply to non-state actors misses the point. The useful distinction is not between rules that regulate the obligations of states and those that regulate the obligations of non-state actors, but rather between rules that regulate the reciprocal obligations of states to each other (international laws) and rules that set global standards that must be obeyed by all entities, state and nonstate alike, regardless of national laws and boundaries. This latter category is the emerging phenomenon of global law. Global laws take varying forms, but they all seek to bind …