Try Before You Trust: Is Investment Arbitration an Appropriate Forum for Climate-Related Investor–State Dispute Settlement?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34625/issn.2183-2705(40.1)2026.ic-12Keywords:
investment arbitration, Investor–State dispute settlement, Climate change disputes, Energy transition, ICSID, Procedural reform, SustainabilityAbstract
Climate-related investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS) has moved from an occasional by-product of energy regulation to a recurring constraint on climate governance. This article asks a pragmatic institutional question: is international investment arbitration an appropriate forum for resolving climate-related investor–State disputes—and, if it is not fully appropriate, what procedural reforms could make it more legitimate and workable during the green transition? Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative doctrinal–policy design in three stages—mapping, evaluation, and reform design—to assess “institutional fitness” without relying on revisions to substantive investment standards. It first maps arbitration’s expanding footprint in climate-related ISDS, including high-profile disputes and “regulatory wave” dynamics. It then evaluates arbitration’s structural strengths for climate disputes against its deficits where public-interest regulation is at stake. The central finding is that arbitration is a flawed but improvable forum: technical competence alone cannot resolve the deeper misalignment between a system designed to protect private capital and disputes shaped by public-interest regulation, scientific uncertainty, and distributive choices. Accordingly, the article proposes a procedural reform package grounded in “try before you trust”: default transparency, structured stakeholder participation, speed-and-cost tools, and access-to-justice measures.
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