LCIL Friday Lecture: 'The Rise and Rise of Legitimate Expectations: A Reflection on Sources and Development of International Investment Law'

Dr Martins Paparinskis is Lecturer at UCL Laws and will be a Visiting Senior Fellow at NUS Law. He is a general international lawyer with a particular interest in international dispute settlement and international investment law. Martins’ publications include articles in BYBIL and EJIL, a compilation of Basic Documents on International Investment Protection (Hart 2012, second edition forthcoming 2017), and a monograph, The International Minimum Standard and Fair and Equitable Treatment (OUP 2013, in paperback with a new introduction 2014). He is the Book Review Editor of Journal of World Investment and Trade, a member of the Academic Review Board of Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the University of Latvia. Law, a member of the ILA’s Study Group on the Use of Domestic Law Principles for the Development of International Law, a member of the ILA’s Committee on Non-State Actors, and a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Lecture summary: 29 May 2003 is the date of the first confirmed siting of legitimate expectations as an element of obligations in international investment law: the award of the ICSID Tribunal in Tecmed v Mexico. On the point of legitimate expectations, the award is long-winded, largely self-referential, and unpersuasive -- all qualities, one might think, of a legal argument that will have little influence on the development of international law. However, fast forward for slightly more than a decade, and one sees legitimate expectations as an important, if not the central element of international investment law. If the broad brush of this story is descriptively accurate, how (easily) does it fit within the traditional rules on sources and development of international law?

The systemic importance of legitimate expectations is evident in contemporary international dispute settlement, where it is routinely adopted as the perspective from which claims about wrongful conduct of States are evaluated. In recent years, the sophisticated drafters of mega-regional treaties have also treated it worthy of explicitly engagement. International legal process may, of course, give a fairly speedy seal of approval to arguments that at first blush are questionable or plainly erroneous. But even by that standard, the irresistible rise of legitimate expectations in investment law provides an interesting case study of making of international law, where the developments that did take place prima facie should have been stymied by traditional rules on sources. The lecture will use the case study of legitimate expectations to reflect upon sources and structure of contemporary international investment law.

Lauterpacht Centre - Term Lecture Programme and Information »

Numbers are limited so please arrive early to avoid disappointment. Please note the lecture programme is subject to revision without notice.