In defense of bilateral investment treaties

The exclusion of investor-state arbitration from the TTIP agreement would represent a regressive development in international investment law that is to be resisted rather than furthered. The key contentions advanced by critics of investor-state arbitration are exaggerated, and reform efforts should instead focus on its shortcomings

Reflections on the Role of the International Court of Justice

I would like this evening to share with you some reflections on the role of the International Court of Justice in an unjust world. You will appreciate that, while I shall try to speak the truth as I see it, I am not able to speak the whole truth; not only because I do not know it, but because of the constraints of my position and the confidentiality of aspects of the work of the Court. In particular, I shall not speak about matters which are sub judice, either in these remarks or in the answers to questions which some of you may wish to ask after them. [Jurisprudential Lecture at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, April 22, 1985.

Human Rights in the World Court

In this Article, Judge Schwebel reviews the cases of the International Court of Justice and its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice, that have substantial human rights implications. He observes that, while the World Court is not a human rights court in the contemporary sense of that term, since standing in contentious cases is limited to States, it nevertheless has constructively dealt with a number of important issues of human rights, as in its early holding that individuals may be the direct beneficiaries of treaty rights. The Court has played a notable role in promoting the protection of human rights by its interpretation of treaties protecting minorities. What may be the earliest judicial assertion of the doctrine of affirmative action is found in a case of the Court. The Court has proscribed the imposition of criminal liability by analogy; it has emphasized the supremely immoral and illegal character of genocide; it has concluded that apartheid violates on its face the norms of human rights; and it has held that the human rights provisions of the United Nations Charter give rise to obligations binding upon States. Judge Schwebel submits that in these and other respects the Court has been, and should continue to be, an instrumental force in the progressive development of the law of international human rights