Nowhere in the world has the process of investment treaty arbitration been more volatile or unpredictable than in Latin America. Although the rush of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) entered into by Latin American countries during the 1990s seemed to promise stable guarantees and security for investors, recent years have produced an ever increasing number of arbitrations before international tribunals involving claims by foreign investors amounting to millions and even billions of dollars. In many cases, the disputes have arisen from regulatory measures involving matters of public interest, including the general welfare, health, environment, security, or economy. In five deeply informative and challenging essays by well-known authorities in various aspects of Latin American and/or international investment legal practice, this book investigates the issues affecting arbitration of disputes invoking Latin American BITs. In-depth coverage includes the following:A { emerging controversies and conflicts, as well as the serious academic debates regarding varying interpretations of treaty terms by different arbitral tribunals; A { ICSID cases concluded to date against Latin American States and cases that have been dismissed on jurisdictional grounds; A { detailed analysis of non-precluded measures provisions, the state of necessity defence, and State liability for investor harms in exceptional circumstances (particularly in connection with water rights); A { a guide for government officials managing investment treaty obligations and investor-State disputes; A { procedural and substantive issues that States should consider in connection with their investment obligations and the handling of claims; andA { options available to address investment treaty provisions that States find troubling and the utility and effectiveness of the recommendations presented.The book demonstrates that there is a compelling need for States to develop greater awareness of their investment treaty obligations with a view to both diminishing the likelihood of claims and properly managing those that are submitted to arbitration. It describes the stocktaking process that should form part of any State A|s efforts to manage its investment treaty obligations and claims by investors that the State has breached those obligations. With specific recommendations for the effective administration of State obligations and investor-State disputes, the book offers eminently practical utility in addition to its penetrating theoretical analysis, and as such constitutes an enormously valuable resource for all parties concerned in Latin American investment.

Enacted as a special interest bill in 1925, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) positioned arbitration well among specialized merchant communities. Its principles relating to the legitimacy of arbitration contracts and the limited judicial supervision of arbitral awards laid the foundation for a more detailed and effective legal regulation of arbitration. Despite the advanced character of its original content, the FAA was never significantly updated by the U.S. Congress, and the standing statutory provisions did not take into account the widening scope of arbitral jurisdiction and its revolutionary impact upon adjudicatory due process. Thus, the task of adjusting the statute to new realities became the responsibility of the U. S. Supreme Court, exercising its duty over a half century and more than fifty cases with the ultimate goal to fulfill the expectations of U.S. citizenship and protect U.S. interests in global commerce.
Toward a New Federal Law on Arbitration endeavors to repair the long-standing problem of updating the official text of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). In this book, Thomas E. Carbonneau proposes to transform the FAA into a genuine national law of arbitration, based exclusively on the federal rules applicable to arbitration. He argues for necessary change in the federal law of arbitration that will not only benefit commercial interests and the U.S. economy, but also provide protection for smaller individual interests, such as consumers and employees. This book joins the U.S. Supreme Court in proclaiming that judicial litigation is flawed. In the process, this book describes the current federal law on arbitration, provides and explains the provisions of the proposed law, while setting the stage for future adjudicatory practice.