A special issue of the ICSID Review–Foreign Investment Law Journal focused on energy transition and international investment law is now available online.

Bringing together diverse perspectives, it explores the implications of the energy transition for international investment law and how investment law may play a role in the energy transition.Special Issue of the ICSID Review on Energy Transition

Contributions include the following articles:

  • Gloria M. Alvarez, Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, and Jorge E. Viñuales, Professor of Law and Environmental Policy at the University of Cambridge, who served as special editors of this Special Issue, provide context and summarize the key arguments of each contribution in International Investment Law in the Energy Transition.
  • In Investment Treaties and Climate Change Policy: A Possible Legal Pathway, Professor Viñuales identifies treaty features that may encourage foreign investment in low-carbon and climate-resilient activities while preserving the ability of States to drive decarbonization and build resilience in their economies.
  • Mamadou Hébié, Associate Professor of International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden Law School, reviews in Climate Change Clauses in International Investment Agreements: An Analytical Survey the text of 109 agreements containing specific climate-related language and concludes that, in most cases, States did not consider that the urgent need to implement climate actions required them to update their international investment agreements.
  • Emilia Onyema, Professor of Commercial Law at SOAS University, and Adarsh Saxena, Director of International Arbitration at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, examine upstream extraction of transition minerals (such as copper, chromium, lithium, and cobalt) needed for the renewable energy sector and argue for reengineering stabilization, applicable-law, and dispute-resolution clauses to align with global policy goals in The Energy Transition in Contractual Practice.
  • In Phasing Out Coal Investment Contracts: Does Just Transition Finance Legitimize Unjust Compensation?, Anatole Boute, Professor of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, examines cases of early termination of coal power purchase agreements to explore obstacles to the energy transition and the justice implications of fully compensating investors when these contracts end.
  • Naomi Briercliffe and Karolina Latasz, Partner and Senior Partner at Squire Patton Boggs LLP, focus on the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), “the most arbitrated international investment protection treaty”. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow? The ECT and its Modernization reflects on the optimism at the treaty’s origins, the first wave of arbitration cases under the ECT, the rollback of renewable investment incentive schemes, and the exodus from the treaty.

  • Fahira Brodlija, Lecturer at the International University of Sarajevo, explores the fair and equitable treatment standard through arbitral jurisprudence and the proposed reforms which may help harness its protective effects to boost sustainable development in The Evolution of the Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard through the Spanish Renewable Energy Saga.

  • Zachary Douglas, Professor of Law at LUISS and at the Geneva Graduate Institute, focuses on the shortcomings of the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Articles on State Responsibility to guide decision-making, in Killing It Softly: The ILC’S Articles on State Responsibility.
  • In Environmental Clauses in Investment Arbitration: Deep Roots, Green Shoots and Dead Wood, Oliver Hailes, Assistant Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, focuses on the operation in the practice of investment tribunals of a range of treaty clauses designed to preserve policy space in environmental matters.

Additional contributions include:

The Special Issue of the ICSID Review–Foreign Investment Law Journal on Energy Transition is available at: https://academic.oup.com/icsidreview/issue/40/2