ABSTRACT

The ongoing reform of investment arbitration at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law can have a lasting impact on international investment protection for the decades ahead. This paper examines the current discussions at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to explain why the current focus on reforming the procedural aspects of the system is too narrow. As a result of such a narrow approach, the reform risks to miss an opportunity to address the global challenges, e.g. climate change. In advancing its critique of the ongoing reform, the paper adopts the lens of metanarrative by Jean-François Lyotard. By relying on Lyotard, this paper cautions that such values as feasibility and efficiency in conducting the reform should not obscure the need for a critical conversation on the purpose of the reform, which is to ensure the legitimacy of investment arbitration in the future. As this paper argues, a current procedural approach to the reform cannot meaningfully contribute to this objective.

中文翻译：

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作为叙事的陷阱：对投资者与国家仲裁改革的批评

摘要

联合国国际贸易法委员会正在进行的投资仲裁改革可能对未来几十年的国际投资保护产生持久影响。本文考察了联合国国际贸易法委员会当前的讨论，以解释为什么当前对改革系统程序方面的关注过于狭窄。由于采取了这种狭narrow的方法，改革可能会错过抓住应对气候变化等全球挑战的机会。在推进对正在进行的改革的批评时，本文采用了让·弗朗索瓦·利奥塔德的叙事视角。本文依靠Lyotard告诫，进行改革的可行性和效率等价值不应掩盖就改革目的进行严格对话的必要性，这是为了确保未来投资仲裁的合法性。正如本文所论证的那样，当前的改革程序方法无法对该目标做出有意义的贡献。