Energy charter treaty arbitration (investor-state) in the Asia-Pacific context: an overview

The international arbitration provision (Art.26) of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)[1] is considered to be one of the ''four pillars'' of the Treaty.[2] The ECT provides for three different principal regimes of dispute settlement: investor-to-state arbitration (Art.26); state-to-state arbitration (Art.27); a GATT-like dispute settlement mechanism for trade disputes. The reason why we are concerned here only with the first type is that its adoption in a prospective regional energy charter in the Asia-Pacific will be problematic given.