Bulletin n. 3/2015
January 2016
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Tsai-yu Lin
    Inter-Mingling TRIPS Obligations with an FET Standard in Investor-State Arbitration: An Emerging Challenge for WTO Law?
    in Journal of World Trade , Vol.50, Issue 1 ,  2016 ,  71-91
    The boundary and shape of evolving investment regimes are heavily influenced by investors’ claims. Bringing a host state’s obligations under other trade agreements as a part of the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) standard in investment treaties represents a new challenge. As argued here, a host state’s violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) establishing a violation of the FET standard not only serves as a unique single issue to be decided in an investment dispute, but would also have important legal implications. That is, investor-state arbitration might function as a competing forum with the WTO for setting future trade matters, and the risk of fragmenting WTO law in various arbitral awards would be increased. Ultimately, the security and predictability of the WTO law system would be undermined and eroded in the context of investment treaties. It is suggested that WTO Members should develop more efficient rules to safeguard the integrity of WTO law from undue interferences by investors in their investment treaties.
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