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Freya Baetens delivers keynote presentation at Carmel Academic Centre

On 20 June, Freya Baetens delivered the keynote presentation at a workshop on "Developments in International Investment Dispute Settlement - EU and Israeli Perspectives", organized by the Law School at Carmel Academic Centre (Haifa), together with the Israeli Association for the Study of European Integration (IASEI) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

This workshop, chaired by Dr. Rachel Frid de Vries, brought together members of academia, practice and government to discuss the content and ramifications of the EU’s new Investment Court System (ICS). Freya Baetens argued that in developing ICS, the EU made a meritorious attempt at addressing the main criticisms of the existing dispute settlement mechanism by, for example, incorporating trial period and cost limitations; adopting the 2013 UNCITRAL Transparency Rules; regulating third party intervention; and creating an appellate review system.

However, a significant number of new issues have emerged due to these reforms, as they allow for people who receive an income from a disputing state party to serve as adjudicators, the omission of any specification as to whether and how adequate gender and geographical distribution will be ensured, the lack of provisions facilitating the access for small and medium-sized companies, and the lack of competence of the Appeal Tribunal to replace the original award with its own decision.

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