Outlook 2021

2020 ended with the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and the EU-China investment treaty.

This means a lot of new work for advising on the impact of post-Brexit trade and investment relations, in particular regarding optimal asset protection.

Surely, the EU-China investment treaty will raise numerous issues that need to be analyzed.

Also, at the end of 2020 the new issue of the European Investment Law and Arbitration Review was published.

The new year will kick off with the EFILA Annual Conference on 14+15 January 2021, this time online. The theme is the renewed role of States investment arbitration.

At the end of January I will participate in a webinar on the legal and geopolitical aspects of the Silk Road.

This year I will also focus on the interaction between tax law and BITs, building on my presentation for Apertas and my blogpost on the Vodafone v. India case.

I will also supervise a large number of master thesises in EU law and trade & investment law for the University of Amsterdam.

In late spring, I will also teach investment law and arbitration at Kobe University, Japan.

Moreover, as SG of EFILA I will participate in the UNCITRAL WG III meetings, which have entered now the final phase.

In short, 2021 promises to be at least as busy as 2020 and I am very much looking forward working with all my clients.