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This article scrutinizes the investment chapters in the new EU Free Trade Agreements from a transparency perspective. The article examines the claims that the dispute settlement mechanisms in the new treaties are sufficiently participatory and more transparent than their predecessors. Procedural standards related to confidentiality of proceedings shall be analysed in the context of existing transparency safeguards in investment arbitration. In addition to procedural guarantees of transparency, the article examines relevant substantive rules affecting participatory aspects of dispute settlement. Furthermore, the article discusses forum-shopping strategies of the parties in the field of investment-related disputes, including internal forum-shopping and parallel proceedings using different procedural mechanisms. In this context, lessons from other fields such as international commercial arbitration related to transparency (in cases in which public interest is present) are highlighted. The proposal for the establishment of an integrated, multilateral court for investment cases is also invoked.

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This chapter focuses on the evolution and conceptual development of the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) principle, a standard commonly found in international investment agreements (IIAs) and frequently invoked in arbitral disputes between foreign investors and host states. It aims at explaining how the latest free trade agreements such as CETA, TTIP, and TPP contribute to the transformation of a contingent and vague notion into a normative legal rule. To do so, the chapter gives a historical account of the evolution of the fair treatment of foreigners over time, and how investment arbitration has constructed its slowly emerging substantive framework. It chiefly argues that explicit clarifications on the constituent elements of the FET principle, as has been the case in CETA, would work in favour of coherent interpretation and establish a better understanding of what this principle should aim to capture.