EU and Canada Adopt Rules for Implementation of Investment Court System in CETA
This article has been co-authored by Quentin Declève together with Nicholas Lawn (Partner at Van Bael & Bellis) and Isabelle Van Damme (Partner at Van Bael & Bellis)
On 29 January 2021, the European Union and Canada adopted four decisions (the Decisions) aimed at further implementing the Investment Court System (the ICS) in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada, of one part, and the European Union and its Member States, of the other part (CETA). The Decisions will enter into force upon ratification of CETA by the EU Member States.
Following certain concerns expressed in relation to older models of investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), the European Union has designed a new model for resolving disputes between foreign investors and States (or the European Union) which seeks to address such concerns. In particular, in recent years some have argued that the traditional form of ISDS does not guarantee fundamental rights and values relating to the independence of arbitrators, legitimacy, access to courts and transparency. In addition, traditional ISDS has been seen by some as failing to result in a coherent body of case-law regarding the interpretation and application of investment protection standards. The ICS aims to resolve these perceived shortcomings by establishing a permanent tribunal composed of independent and publicly appointed members of a first instance Tribunal and, in case of an appeal, an Appellate Tribunal.
Although the main characteristics of the ICS were already established in CETA (see Chapter 8 on Investment), some specific features and procedural mechanisms still had to be agreed by the EU and Canada. These details were therefore agreed in the Decisions of the CETA Joint Committee which (i) set out rules and procedures regarding the functioning of the Appellate Tribunal (the Decision on the Appellate Tribunal); (ii) establish a code of conduct for mediators and judges (the Decision on the Code of Conduct); (iii) provide rules for mediation (the Decision on Mediation); and (iv) establish rules for adopting binding interpretations of CETA (the Decision on Binding Interpretations).READ MORE