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Article
Who Has Benefited Financially from Investment Treaty Arbitration? An Evaluation of the Size and Wealth of Claimants
Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series
  • Gus Van Harten, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University
Research Paper Number
14/2016

View the research paper on SSRN here.

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Keywords
  • Investor-state arbitration, ISDS, compensation, wealth, corporations
Abstract

We collected data on the size and wealth of the foreign investors that have brought claims and received compensation due to ISDS. Our main findings are that the beneficiaries of ISDS, in the aggregate, have overwhelmingly been companies with more than USD1 billion in annual revenue – especially extra-large companies with more than USD10 billion – and individuals with more than USD100 million in net wealth. ISDS has produced monetary benefits primarily for those companies or individuals at the expense of respondent states. Incidentally, we also found that extra-large companies’ success rates in ISDS, especially at the merits stage, exceeded by a large margin the success rates of other claimants. It was evident that ISDS has also delivered substantial monetary benefits for the ISDS legal industry.

Citation Information
Gus Van Harten. "Who Has Benefited Financially from Investment Treaty Arbitration? An Evaluation of the Size and Wealth of Claimants" (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gus_vanharten/105/