The US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): Should it Leave a Door Open for Non-Legal Arbitrators?
Conflict Resolution Quarterly 2016
50 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2016 Last revised: 23 Jul 2016
Date Written: July 3, 2016
Abstract
This article reflects on the suitability of including non-legal arbitrators in certain investment arbitrations. It presents different mechanisms that have been used in the investment arbitration context to aid legal arbitrators with scientific-technical issues and contemplates the drawbacks of this external competence. After analyzing various sectors in which non-legal experts provide internal competence (international inspection boards, specialized national courts, commercial arbitration tribunals, and inter-state arbitration tribunals), the article concludes that incorporating arbitrators with scientific-technical competence into international investment tribunals on an ad casum basis may not be such a farfetched idea. Finally, several lege ferenda proposals that would achieve the common goal of not barring non-legal “judges” from the future US-EU Investment Court are put forward.
Keywords: Investment Arbitration, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), non-legal expert, arbitrator, Investment Court System (ICS)
JEL Classification: K33, K30, K40, K41, C10, F02, F13, F21, F30, H77, E22, H87, K20, O10, K19
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation