27 September 2006
Sydney, 27 September 2006: The rise of investment arbitration as an effective tool for safeguarding foreign investors against the whims of government decision-making is a success story in the world of international dispute resolution according to one of the world's leading arbitrators, Professor Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel[1].
In Sydney to deliver the 2006 Annual International Arbitration Lecture, a joint initiative of national law firm Clayton Utz and The University of Sydney, Professor Böckstiegel says that with the help of investment treaties, private investors are now correcting the long-standing imbalance between the negotiating positions of state and enterprise in disputes where foreign interests are at stake.
"Investment treaties present the real new milestone in the long history of investment arbitration. Private investors are no more only objects of an inter-state dispute, but today most often are directly participating as claimants against foreign states," says Professor Böckstiegel. "As such, a foreign investor can procedurally claim its contractual rights without being delayed or prevented by domestic or international political considerations. This lowers the political risks to foreign investors and in turn will help promote continued investment."
In his lecture "Enterprise v State: The new David and Goliath?", Professor Böckstiegel will address the legal and commercial implications of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties for private companies doing business abroad.
Professor Böckstiegel will deliver this year's lecture in the Banco Court at the Supreme Court of NSW, commencing at 5.00pm today.
The Clayton Utz/Sydney University International Arbitration Lecture is an annual lecture for the promotion of the study of international arbitration and international dispute resolution, with a particular focus on Australasia and the Asia-Pacific.
[1] Professor Böckstiegel is one of the world's leading arbitrators. He is well known for his role as the former president of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal (established in response to the crisis in relations between the two countries arising out of the detention of 52 US nationals in Tehran in November 1979) and panel chairman of the UN Compensation Commission. He has also served as President of the London Court of International Arbitration and the International Law Association. He has experience as a counsel, mediator and arbitrator and has presided over arbitration tribunals in many international and national arbitration proceedings.
