Is investment arbitration an appropriate venue for environmental issues? A Latin American perspective.

Nitish Monebhurrun

Resumo


The aim of this contribution is to examine how the environmental conundrums are brought before arbitral tribunals within the ambit of international investment law. It seeks to understand whether these tribunals specialised in investment law constitute an appropriate forum to consider environmental issues. The method applied is an inductive one. The general argumentation is indeed induced from the study of the awards rendered by arbitral tribunals, mainly within the Latin-American region. In this vein, the article concludes that although investment tribunals are not primarily designated to apply environmental law, they do, practically, accept environment protection arguments: this will be presented as an “environmental defense”. The article highlights the conditions for such a defense to be successful. For this reason, the contribution has a practical value: instead of focusing on the protection of the environment as a mere objective – as it is often done -, it presents such a protection as a means of defense in arbitral litigations.

Palavras-chave


Direito internacional dos investimentos, arbitragem internacional, direito ambiental

Texto completo:

PDF

Referências


BEN HAMIDA, Walid. Le système actuel est-il déséquilibré en faveur de l’investisseur privé étranger et au détriment de l’Etat d’accueil?: table ronde. In: LEBEN, Charles. Le contentieux arbitral transnational relatif

à l’investissement: nouveaux développement. Paris: L. G. D. J. 2006.

CAZALA, Julien. Le traitement juste et equitable: transparence et protection des attentes légitimes de l’investisseur. Gazette du Palais, n. 349, p. 6, 15 dez. 2007.

CHOUDHURY, Barnali. Recapturing public power: is investment arbitration’s engagement of the public interest contributing to the democratic deficit?. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, v. 41, n. 3, p. 775-832. 2008.

SEGGER, Marie-Claire Cordonier; GEHRING, Markus. W.; NEWCOMBE, Andrew. (Ed.). Sustainable development in world investment law. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2011.

DELMAS-MARTY, Mireille. Les forces imaginantes du droit (II). Le pluralisme ordonné. Paris: Seuil, 2006. DOLZER, Rudolf; SCHREUER, Christoph. Principles of international investment law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

EL BOUDOUHI, Saïda. L’intérêt général et les règles substantielles de protection des investissements. Annuaire Français de droit international, v. 51, p. 542-563, 2005.

FACH GOMEZ, Katia. Latin America and ICSID: David versus Goliath. Law and Business Review of the Americas, v. 17, p. 195-221, 2011.

FITZMAURICE, Malgosia. International protection of the environment, R.C.A.D.I., v. 293, p. 9-488, 2001.

FRANCK, Suzanne. Development and outcome of investment treaty arbitration, Harvard International Law Journal, v. 50, n. 2, p. 201-255, 2009.

GAILLARD, Emmanuel. Anti-arbitration trends in Latin America, New York Law Journal, v. 239, n. 108, 5 jun. 2008.

GARCIA-BOLIVAR, Omar E. The surge of investment

disputes: Latin America testing the international

law of foreign investments. The Second Biennial

General Conference Of the Asian Society of International

Law, Tokyo, p. 1-9, aug. 2009.

GEHRING, Markus W. Impact assessment of investment

treatie. In: SEGGER, Marie-Claire Cordonier;

GEHRING, Markus. W.; NEWCOMBE, Andrew.

(Ed.). Sustainable development in world investment law.

Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2011.

HIRSCH, Mosche. Interactions Between investment

and non-investment obligations. In: MUCHLINSKI,

Peter; ORTINO, Federico; SCHREUER, Christoph

(Ed.). The Oxford handbook of international investment

law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

JUILLARD, Patrick. Le système actuel est-il déséquilibré

en faveur de l’investisseur privé étranger et au

détriment de l’Etat d’accueil?: table ronde. In: LEBEN,

Charles. Le contentieux arbitral transnational relatif

à i’investissement. nouveaux développements. Paris:

L.G.D.J., 2006.

KOSKENNIEMI, Martti. Fragmentation du droit international:

difficultés découlant de la diversification et

de l’expansion du droit international. Geneva: Rapport

du Groupe d’Étude de la Commission du droit international,

MACHADO, Decio. Ecuador y la denuncia de los tratados

bilaterales de inversión, CATDM, 07/12/2009.

Available at: .

MATES, Carol M. Project finance in emerging marketsthe

role of the international finance corporation. Transnational

Lawyer, v. 18, p. 165, 2004.

MOLOO, Rahim; JACINTO, Justin. Environmental

and health regulation: assessing liability under investment

treaties. Berkley Journal of International Law,

v. 29, n. 1, p. 101-165, 2011.

MONEBHURRUN, Nitish; BARBOSA, Flavio Spaccaquerche.

O tratamento e a proteção do investimento

estrangeiro: a proteção do investimento estrangeiro. Revista

Brasileira Dearbitragem, ed. especial, p. 107-144. set.

MONEBHURRUN, Nitish. Are Bilateral Investment

Treaties Contemporary Unequal Treaties?. International

Journal of Contemporary Laws, vol. 1, no.1,

Available on:

vol.1_1_-_article_by_nitish.pdf>.

MONEBHURRUN, Nitish. Criticism on SDGs and

presentation of the principle of integration as an international

law instrument to contribute to sustainable

development. In: OLIVEIRA, Carina Costa de; SAMPAIO,

Rômulo da Rocha (Org.). Instrumentos jurídicos

para a implementação do desenvolvimento sustentável: legal instruments for the implementation of sustainable development.

Rio de Janeiro: FGV-Publication, 2012.

MORGERA, Elisa. Significant trends in corporate environmental

accountability: the new performance standards

of the international finance corporation. Colorado

Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy, v. 18,

p. 147-184, 2007.

MORTIMORE, Michel, STANLEY, Leonardo. Justice denied: dispute settlement in latin america’s trade and investment agreements, working

group on development and environment in the Americas.

Discussion Paper, n. 27, p. 2, oct. 2009.

MUCHLINSKI, Peter. Caveat investor?: the relevance

of the conduct of the investor under the fair and equitable

treatment standard. ICLQ, v. 55, p. 527-558, 2006.

NEWCOMBE, Andrew; PARADELL, Luis. Law and

practice of investment treaties: standards of treatment.

Alphen Aan Den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2009.

OECD. Droit international de l’investissement: un domaine

em mouvement – complément aux perspectives

de l’investissement international. Paris: OECD, 2005.

PAYNE, Cymie. Mastering the evidence: improving fact

finding by international courts. Environmental Law, v.

, p. 1191-1220, 2011.

RANCK, Suzanne. Development and outcome of investment

treaty arbitration. Harvard International Law

Journal, v. 50, n. 2, p. 202, 2009.

ROBERT-CUENDET Sabrina. Protection de l’environnement

et investissement étranger: les règles applicables à la dépossession du fait de la réglementation environnementale. Paris: Thèse, 2008.

SALACUSE, Jeswald. W. The law of investment treaties.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

SANDS, Philippe. Litigating environmental disputes:

courts, tribunals and the progressive development of

international environmental law: the policy framework

for investment: the social and environmental dimensions,

Global Forum on International Investment,

OECD, p. 1-10, mar. 2008.

SCHREUER, Christoph, KRIEBAUM, Ursula. From

individual to community interest in international investment

law. In: FASTENRATH, Ulrich. et al. From bilateralism to community interest: essays in honour of judge Bruno Simma. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

SCHREUER, Christoph. Fair and equitable treatment

in arbitral practice. JWIT, v. 6, n. 3, p. 357-387, jun. 2005.

SORNARAJAH, Muthucumaraswamy. The settlement

of foreign investment disputes. The Hague: Kluwer

Law International, 2000.

SORNARAJAH, Muthucumaraswamy. Power and justice:

third world resistence in international law. Singapore

Yearbook of International Law, v. 10, p. 19-57, 2006.

TIENHAARA, Kyla. Unilateral commitments to investment

protection: does the promise of stability restrict

environmental policy development?, Yearbook

of International Environmental Law, v. 17, p. 133-167, 2006.

TEITELBAUM, Ruth. A look at the public interest in

investment arbitration: is it unique? what should we do

about it?. Berkley Journal of International Law Publicist,

v. 5, p. 54-62, 2010.

VIÑUALES, Jorge. Foreign investment and the environment

in international law: an ambiguous relationship.

Research Paper, Geneva, n. 2, p. 1-74, 2010.

VIÑUALES, Jorge. Conflits normatifs en droit international:

normes environnementales vs. protection des investissement. Le droit international face aux enjeux environnementaux, Paris, p. 407-428, 2010.

WALDE, Thomas. W. Procedural challenge in investment

arbitration under the Shadow of the dual role of States: asymmetries and tribunals’ duty to encure pro-actively, the equality of arms. Arbitration International, v. 26, n. 1, p. 15-16, 2010.

WALDE, Thomas; KOLO, Abba. Environmental regulation,

investment protection and ‘regulatory taking’ in

international law. International and Comparative Law Quarterly,

v. 50, n. 4, p. 819, 2001.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5102/rdi.v10i1.2070

ISSN 2236-997X (impresso) - ISSN 2237-1036 (on-line)

Desenvolvido por:

Logomarca da Lepidus Tecnologia