Investment Treaties, Sustainable Development and Reasonableness Review: A Case Against Strict Proportionality Balancing

Abstract

The article tackles the question of how far should investment tribunals go in reviewing the reasonableness of host state conduct. Based on an evolutionary interpretation of the preamble of international investment treaties and focusing on the principle of integration as the key element of the concept of sustainable development, the article's main argument is that investment tribunals should avoid a review based on proportionality stricto sensu or cost-benefit balancing.

Inter-civilizational approaches to investor-state dispute settlement: Global constitutional adjudication or international adjudication?

“…While 'constitutional systems … paradigmatically govern and unite all aspects of the common good within their territories and for all persons subject to their authority', 54 international investment law has a more 'monothematic nature', in that it focuses mainly 'on affording protection to foreign investments' and promoting the development of the host state. 55 IIAs often have concurring objectives, including those of promoting peaceful and prosperous relations among nations, protecting foreign investments, and promoting the (sustainable) development of the host state. Yet, they do not provide the adjudicator with a complete value system as do constitutional law instruments.…”

Cambio Climático e Inversiones: Esbozando estrategias de armonización para Chile

“…En muchas de estas disputas, se discute sobre la necesidad de reducir "…la protección legal otorgada a los intereses económicos privados extranjeros, por un lado, y al poder regulador soberano de los Estados anfitriones para perseguir el interés y el bienestar público, en el otro", al decir de Tanzi 48 . En igual sentido, Ortino describe que los tribunales arbitrales están dedicados a revisar una amplia gama de actos públicos, incluidos actos de cualquier órgano estatal que ejerza funciones legislativas, ejecutivas, judiciales o de cualquier otro tipo 49 , varios de estos actos estatales se alojan en las políticas climáticas que están emprendiendo los Estados actualmente. desarrollo (I+D) en tecnologías bajas en carbono y energías renovables; 3) Facilitar el Desarrollo Sustentable y el uso de tecnologías amigables con el clima en los países en desarrollo.…”

A brief overview of sustainable development: how a debated concept with a much-contested legal nature could perform a valuable role in the decision-making

“…Sustainable development certainly does not provide a formula to how integration and balancing shall occur 143 ; in fact, decision-makers should take advantage that the concept has an open--ended character and, thus, is adaptable to multiple situations, to use it to clarify, interpret, modify and distinguish applicable norms according to each particular situation 144 . It leaves adjudicators with greater freedom to determine the appropriate balance between the case's aspects 145 , what, ultimately, may lead to more just and complete decisions.…”