On May 7, the 10th Wuhan University International Law Forum 2018 was successfully held in Room 323 of Law School. The speaker was Prof. Marc Bungenberg, dean of the Eurocollege at University of Saarland. He gave a speech with the theme of A Basic Structure of a Future Multilateral Investment Court while the host is Associate Prof. Xiao Jun.

In this lecture, Professor Bungenberg introduced the preliminary design concept of the future multilateral investment court based on his consultation report for the German government and the multilateral investment court initiative proposed by the European Union.

Professor Bungenberg first pointed out the shortcomings of the existing investor-host country dispute mechanism, such as the arbitrator's multiple identities affecting the fairness of the ruling and the high cost of arbitration. Due to the intense wave of opposition from the public and political circles in countries such as Germany, the EU has proposed to replace the existing investment arbitration mechanism with a permanent multilateral investment court. The professor briefly reviewed the process that emerged from the initiative.

Professor Bungenberg gave a detailed introduction to the specific concept of building a multilateral investment court:

First, the multilateral investment court should be a brand new international organization based on multilateral treaties open to all countries. Initially the treaty had 40-50 States parties and did not replace the existing BIT regime, but merely modified the dispute settlement rules in investment treaties between States Parties.

Second, multilateral investment courts should have independent legal personality, personnel, finances, and organizational structures. The professor suggested that the organization of the court could include the plenary, the secretariat, the investment advisory center and the judges. Among them, the General Assembly is composed of representatives of all member states, responsible for selecting judges and formulating rules; the Secretariat provides administrative support; and the Investment Advisory Center can provide assistance to developing countries and SMEs. The judge is the core of the court and should be composed of full-time judges, representing different legal systems and different regions, with a high degree of independence and professionalism, especially with a public law background.

Thirdly, with regard to the procedural rules of the court, Professor Bungenberg pointed out that the rules of the German administrative courts can be used to fully guarantee the transparency of the parties' procedural rights and procedures. The substantive law applicable to the settlement of disputes by the courts will be an investment treaty corresponding to the dispute and will focus on the consistency of the application of the rules of the treaty.

Finally, with regard to the enforcement of court decisions, the professor pointed out that due to the inability to apply the ICSID Convention and its enforcement mechanism, court decisions under the New York Convention system may not be considered arbitral awards, so separate enforcement mechanisms for court decisions need to be established, including And set up funds and so on.

In the questioning session, Professor Bungenberg answered the questions of many students. At the end of the lecture, the host Xiao Jun summarized and highly praised the lecture, and expressed his thanks to Professor Bungenberg for his wonderful speech.

(Written by Zou Liheng and Zhuang Xiaojun, graduate student of the International Law Institute)