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TDM Call for Papers: International Investment Arbitration - Environmental Protection and Climate Change Issues

27 May 2021

Call for papers for a Special Issue of Transnational Dispute Management (TDM, ISSN 1875-4120) titled "International Investment Arbitration - Environmental Protection and Climate Change Issues".

Environmental protection and climate change issues are increasingly coming to the centre stage of international public discourse as an urgent matter and more so in the wake of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, 2015. International investment arbitral tribunals are frequently confronting these issues in respect of investment disputes and their task is getting complicated and problematic due to the lack of adequate provisions on the matter in the traditional international investment agreements (IIAs). However, the new generation of IIAs are making provisions to this effect only in dribs and drabs, but there is a long way to go.

In the meantime, a review of the extent to which climate change concerns are recognized in international investment jurisprudence indicates a distinctive shift in judicial attitudes: from an emphasis on investment protection to recent cases which increasingly recognise the importance of environmental protection.

Environmental protection and climate change issues stand at the crossroads of investment protection and non-investment considerations within the context of international investment disputes. This is a growing area of law and practice.

It is anticipated that in the years to come the majority of investment disputes will be concerned with such non-investment matters, often triggered by state's environmental and climate change regulations, if the trends in current IIAs and efforts of various UN bodies under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030 continue.

Possible topics for submission include the following aspects / issues (but not exclusively):

• Foreign investment and environmental protection / climate change litigation
• Foreign investment and environmental protection / climate change disputes and ADR
• International investment law and environmental protection / climate change considerations
• International investment arbitration and environmental protection / climate change considerations
• Jurisdictional issues within investment arbitration concerning the justiciability of non-investment matters, such as environmental protection and climate change considerations
• The salience of the Paris Agreement and UN Sustainable Development Goals in the context of investment arbitration / ISDS
• International investment arbitration and emissions trading, including under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement
• ISDS jurisprudence and the protection of the environment and human rights
• Environment and climate change disputes avoidance and prevention mechanisms
• Environmental dispute settlement options
• Climate change dispute settlement options
• Environmental / human rights dispute settlement options
• The interface / interplay between environmental protection / climate change and human rights
• Compensation issues for state's environmental / climate change regulations
• Environmental / Climate justice issues before international investment arbitral tribunals
• Arbitral institution innovation concerning environment and climate issues
• International investment and the Paris Agreement goal of transitioning global finance flows

The Co-editors:

Time line and submission guidelines:

Proposals, along with authors' profiles (150-200 words), should be submitted to the editor(s) Professor Dr A F M Maniruzzaman, Wendy J. Miles QC, Carla Lewis, Dr Jane Willems, and Dr Stephen Minas via email and copied to info@transnational-dispute-management.com.

An abstract of the proposed paper should be submitted at your earliest convenience. Final papers should be submitted by 31 December 2021. The release of the special issue is planned for the first quarter of 2022.

Articles accepted for publication before this deadline will also go through TDM's on-line advance publication process, allowing your work to reach its target audience as soon as the paper completes peer review and the editing process.

The minimum word count for articles is 5,000 words (excluding footnotes, endnotes, appendices, tables, summary etc.). Articles must include a short summary of the key points addressed and any conclusions drawn (150-200 words). The layout of the articles should conform to TDM's submission guidelines, available at: www.transnational-dispute-management.com/contribute.asp (more information available upon request).

For citations, follow OSCOLA (4^th Edition): www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/publications/oscola

This call for papers can also be found on the TDM website here: www.transnational-dispute-management.com/news.asp?key=1893

Feel free to forward this call for papers to colleagues who may be interested in contributing to the special issue.

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