Damages in International Investment Law

In light of the high (and growing) scale of awards in investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases, the critical issue of damages in international investment law is gaining increased attention.

This session of the IISD Webinar Series on Investment Law and Policy analyzed the importance of valuation of damages in the current ISDS context; the challenges that respondent states face with respect to the inconsistent and unpredictable technical approaches to damage valuation adopted by arbitral tribunals; elements for investment law reform to address concerning these issues; and related topics.

The main speaker was Jonathan Bonnitcha, Senior Lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, and an Associate with IISD’s Economic Law and Policy Program. He and Sarah Brewin, International Law Advisor, Agriculture and Investment at IISD, have co-authored an IISD Best Practices Series paper on the issue of damages. The paper, now available as an advance draft for comment, will be the basis for the webinar presentation.

Please note that the webinar made brief reference to Unión Fenosa Gas v Egypt, as well as another case that also involved Egypt, referring to both as one case. These should have been referred to separately.

The webinar was moderated by Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Group Director of Economic Law and Policy at IISD. It was held on August 29, 2019, at 12 pm CEST on the Zoom platform for one hour. The video recording is available for viewing below.