Washington and Lee University School of Law

W&L/UNCTAD Symposium

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United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development



Through its programmes of Investment and Enterprise Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) analyses trends in foreign direct investment and their impact on development; identifies policy options; helps countries to promote international investment and understand the issues involved in international investment agreements; and devises strategies for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

As part of its recent work on the topic of international investment and ADR, UNCTAD has prepared a publication entitled "Investor-State Disputes: Prevention and Alternatives to Arbitration", which is available here. The paper discusses alternatives to arbitration for resolving existing disputes between investors and States, but also introduces good practice approaches and policies used to prevent disputes between investors and States from emerging and escalating.

The authors would appreciate receiving your comments and views on the issues raised and suggestions made in this paper. In particular, remarks on the following questions would be encouraged:

  • Given various advantages and disadvantages of investment treaty arbitration outlined in the UNCTAD paper, do you consider the current way how investment disputes are resolved satisfactory? Why or why not?
  • What are, in your view, feasible alternatives to arbitration in the context of investor-State disputes? Which alternative methods discussed in the UNCTAD paper would you consider as feasible / not feasible in pratice, and why?  Are there differences in feasibility depending on the nature of the dispute, parties involved, or relevant treaty?
  • When looking at existing and previous experiences with the use of ADR or dispute prevention policies in the context of investment disputes, what do you think works well and what does not? In this context, what are the specific problems and challenges faced by States, investors, legal practitioners and international institutions and how can these problems and challenges be addressed?
  • In the future, how can ADR, dispute prevention policies and other alternatives to arbitration be applied more effectively to resolve or prevent investor-State disputes? To this end, what steps and changes would be required in your view?

Any comments and suggestions would be gratefully received. To comment, please send an email to Jan Knoerich (jan.knoerich@unctad.org).

UNCTAD Resources