The Use of Object and Purpose by Trade and Investment Adjudicators: Convergence Without Interaction
13 Pages Posted: 1 Jul 2018 Last revised: 23 May 2019
Date Written: June 14, 2018
Abstract
This chapter compares the practice of trade and investment adjudicators in relation to the requirement to interpret a treaty 'in the light of its object and purpose'. It begins by identifying a range of issues and choices that adjudicators face in relation to applying this interpretative element, and the practical barriers to any significant degree of judicial interaction or cross-fertilization between trade and investment adjudicators with respect to those issues. It then shows that notwithstanding the absence of judicial interaction, there is a remarkable degree of convergence in the legal reasoning of trade and investment adjudicators on these diverse issues.
Keywords: Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, interpretation of treaties, object and purpose, consequentialist arguments, legal reasoning, WTO, investor-State dispute settlement
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation