The UNASUR Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and Venezuela. Will Both Ever See the Light at the End of the Tunnel?

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The UNASUR Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and Venezuela. Will Both Ever See the Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Dear Reader,

The research article "The UNASUR Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and Venezuela. Will Both Ever See the Light at the End of the Tunnel? written by Maria Gabriela Sarmiento, partner and co-founder of SNC, has been published in the Journal of World Investment & Trade (JWIT) No. 17, Year 2016, Pages 658–680, BRILL. 

Abstract

One of the objectives of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is the creation of a regional dispute settlement centre to replace the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). To that end, UNASUR formed the High Level Experts Working Group on the Settlement of Investment Disputes whose efforts have thus far culminated in the November 2014 Draft Constitutive Agreement on the UNASUR Centre. This article analyses les enjeux politiques , it reviews the measures taken and the actions envisioned by UNASUR to change the much-criticised current system of investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), and describes in detail the 2014 Draft Constitutive Agreement. In addition, it examines the inherent conflict within UNASUR’s mandate: advance integration in the region, while respecting State sovereignty. That tension is particularly evident in the case of Venezuela, used in this article as an example for the challenges facing the UNASUR Centre.

Keywords

International investment agreements (IIAs) – investor-State dispute settlement – International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) – Latin America – Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) – Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) – bilateral investment treaties (BITs) – Venezuela

The content is avaialble as from the 1st of September 2016 from the link: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22119000/17/4

Enjoy!

SNC Group