Completing the international investment architecture: developing investor-state dispute prevention mechanisms (DPMs)

The increase in the use of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)  over the last decade has made evident shortcomings and challenges of the existing mechanisms to arbitrate investment disputes, not only from the perspective of the international investment community, but also from the vantage point of the host states. Shortcomings are gradually posing serious risks to the legitimacy and functionality of the international investment law framework. Little research has been undertaken to address these challenges and to explore alternative approaches aimed at preventing investment disputes from arising in the first place. An important gap remains to be filled that would help policy makers gain a fuller picture of two closely related key issues: first, the challenges posed by the increase in ISDS to the international investment governance system and second, the identification of the various mechanisms, both in the form of policies and legal measures, that could help prevent investment disputes from arising in the first place, that is investor-state dispute prevention mechanisms (DPMs).