update & round-up Q2 2019

Q2 of 2019 has been busy again and lots of developments have happened.

I have commented on the long-awaited Opinion 1/17 of the Court of Justice of the EU in which it approved the CETA-style Investment Court System (ICS). Here is my blogpost for the Practical Arbitration blog and an earlier version in Borderlex.

The Opinion 1/17 not only approved the CETA-style ICS but also effectively the currently in the UNCITRAL Working Group negotiated Multilateral Investment Court (MIC). As EFILA Secretary General I attended the meeting in the first week of April in New York. Here you can read my summary of the meeting in Borderlex.

In addition, finally, serious international media have turned their attention to the deteriorating level of the Rule of Law in many countries of the EU and the need to maintain intra-EU BITs.

In April, the Wall Street Journal published an article for which I provided background information and in which I was also quoted. Download the article here.

In June, the Economist published a leader concluding that the EU should not dump the intra-EU BITs because they are still needed. Also, for this piece I explained the complex legal and political issues regarding intra-EU BITs. Download the article here.

Finally, you can also read my round-up of the first half year as published in the Kluwer Arbitration blog.