Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 03/2015

In Defense of Bilateral Investment Treaties

Stephen M. Schwebel

November 2014

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Abstract

The exclusion of investor-state arbitration from the TTIP agreement would represent a regressive development in international investment law that is to be resisted rather than furthered. The key contentions advanced by critics of investor-state arbitration are exaggerated, and reform efforts should instead focus on its shortcomings.