Intra-EU BITs and Intra-EU Disputes

On 7 March 2016, Marc Bungenberg (Europa-Institut, Saarland University) and August Reinisch hosted the third Vienna Conference on International Investment Law and EU Law at the Law School of the University of Vienna. The focus of this year’s conference was on international investment agreements concluded between EU Member States and legal disputes resulting therefrom. In their presentations, various investment law experts dealt with questions concerning ‘Intra-EU BITs and Intra-EU Disputes’. More than 90 participants from all over the world including attorneys, scholars, representatives of the EU institutions, of international organizations and of governments joined in an intensive discussion.

The conference started off with Panos Koutrakos (City University London) who touched upon various aspects of the conference theme by discussing the relevance of EU law for arbitral tribunals (‘Relevance of EU Law for Arbitral Tribunal in General – Overview’).

The speakers of the second panel provided a comparative overview of the treatment of foreign investors under EU law and under international law. Mavluda Sattorova (University of Liverpool) talked about ‘Investor Rights under EU Law and International Investment Law’ and Martins Paparinskis’ (University College London) presentation was devoted to the issue of ‘Investors' Remedies under EU and International Law’.

After the lunch break, Marco Uccelli (EU Commission) provided firsthand information on the view of the European Commission on Intra-EU BITs. Christina Binder (University of Vienna) adopted a generalist approach and shed light on the treaty law implications of intra-EU BITs (‘A Treaty Law Perspective on Intra-EU BITs’).

Then, Hanno Wehland, an internationally renowned arbitration practitioner and formerly at the PCA, demonstrated issues in the enforcement context (‘Enforcement of Intra-EU BIT Awards within and outside the EU’). Steffen Hindelang (FU Berlin) elaborated on the suitability of ‘Potential Alternative Instruments for intra-EU Investment Disputes’.

The conference was concluded by Marc Bungenberg who shared some of his thoughts on ‘Intra-EU BITs and Intra-EU Disputes’ and gave a brief summary of the conference.

10th Anniversary Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL)