The Establishment of a Multilateral Investment Court: Lessons Learned from the WTO

The Multilateral Investment Court initiative emerged as a result of increased public criticism against investor-state dispute settlement. While such a court may provide a timely solution to the criticisms levelled against the dispute settlement system, its establishment would entail a complete overhaul of the system’s current regime. This thesis analyses the implications of establishing a Multilateral Investment Court for the settlement of investor-state disputes. It starts with an overview of the development of investorstate dispute settlement, an analysis of its features, and an investigation of the salient problems that led to various institutional mandates for its reform. It subsequently analyses how the Multilateral Investment Court would address investor-state dispute settlement concerns and what problems may arise in case of its establishment, both in terms of operation and institutional framework, as well as political feasibility. It concludes by submitting that the Multilateral Investment Court, as currently envisaged, would not be a better solution for the settlement of investor-state disputes than the current regime, as any potential benefits may be negated by the new problems it would generate. The author Faith Abel Abraham