Reflections on International Law: 'The Abandoned Investor' - Prof Christoph Schreuer, University of Vienna

Lecture: 5 pm - 6.15 pm (followed by a drinks reception in the Old Library at 6.15 pm - 7 pm)

Lecture summary: Under classical international law home States of investors would be expected to look after the interests of their nationals by exercising diplomatic protection. Investment arbitration has given investors the possibility to pursue their own interests and has at the same time depoliticized investment disputes. More recently the tide seems to turn with home States taking positions that work to their investors’ detriment. This trend manifests itself through interpretations of investment treaties and even agreed termination of these treaties. The lecture will discuss these developments.

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Commentator: Professor Ursula Kriebaum, University of Vienna

Chair: Dr Joanna Gomula, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law

Professor Christoph Schreuer holds a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna (1966), a LL.B. (first class) from the University of Cambridge (1970, re-designated LL.M. in 1986), a diploma in International Law from the University of Cambridge (1972) and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School (1979). He has spent most of his academic career at the Department of International Law of the University of Salzburg, Austria. From 1992 to 2000 he was the Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Organization at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the John Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. Since October 2000 he is Professor of International Law at the Department of European, International Law and Comparative Law, University of Vienna.

Professor Schreuer has been, among his other achievements, a Member of the ICSID Panel of Conciliators and Arbitrators; Chairman of the ILA Committee on the Law of Foreign Investment; and Managing Editor of the Austrian Journal of Public and International Law. He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Austrian Review of International and European Law. He has published extensively on international investment law, including a 1500 page commentary on the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States under the title "The ICSID Convention: A Commentary". He has been associated with the law firm ZFZ Zeiler Rechtsanwälte in Vienna and is also working as an independent expert in investment cases.

Professor Ursula Kriebaum holds a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna (1999) and a diploma of International and Comparative Law of Human Rights of the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasburg (1995). She is a Professor of International Law at the Section of International Law and International Relations of the Department of European, International and Comparative Law of the University of Vienna. She is a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Member of the ICSID Panel of Conciliators; Member of the Arbitration Panel under the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union; Alternate Member of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE; and Member of the Arbitration Panel for the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation to the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States and the Republic of Korea. She is a co-author of Dolzer/Kriebaum/Schreuer, Principles of International Investment Law 3rd edition (OUP 2022) and co-author of Articles 41 and 42 in the 3rd edition of Schreuer’s Commentary to the ICSID Convention (CUP 2022).

This event is part of the Reflections on International Law lecture series.