Chapter 9
In: A Multifaceted Approach to Trade Liberalisation and Investment Protection in the Energy Sector
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This chapter argues that investment arbitration has undergone a transformation. Having been created with the original intended function of protecting foreign investors, it has been for a long time a forum where investors would bring investment (not environmental) claims, and even in those few instances where environmental issues were raised, tribunals would mostly discard them as irrelevant. More recently, however, it seems to have become a system that allows and ensures the compliance with and enforcement of environmental norms. To explain this transformation, it examines three main drivers of change: the use of environmental issues by the parties, the attitude of tribunals, and the introduction of environmental provisions in investment agreements.