PhD researcher Rana Kassas has recently published on the International Mediation Institute Blog the article: COVID-19 and Mediation of Investor-State disputes: A way forward
A first wave of pandemic legal action is steadily building up globally and is likely to break aggressively. While governments struggle internally to protect public health and safety, corporations target an already overburdened regime via investment arbitration and other litigation avenues. For example, companies that operate both locally and internationally, and that have suffered significantly more financial loss and reduced profit overseas than in their home states due to the absence of (or implementation of disproportional) compulsory regulatory measures by the sovereign state in the face of the pandemic, may have added legal standing to their claims under the protection of a bilateral investment agreement.
The lack of precedent on pandemic-related cases such as those that are (and increasingly will be) linked to Covid-19 will likely push scholars and practitioners to seek customary law remedies that may not be effective in settling Covid-19 related disputes. Mediation can play a noteworthy role in providing the investor-state bridge that has the capacity to surpass other legal safeguards by providing an exceptional environment for a personalized and much needed dialog between investor and state in extraordinary times.
Rana Kassas is working towards a PhD in Investment Law at the Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS). Her primary research focuses on the roles accorded to parties in investor-state dispute settlement and their application through relevant non-state actors in the jurisprudence of investment tribunals.