Moral Damages under International Investment Law: The Path Towards Convergence

International Arbitration Law Library# 62

The much-debated fragmentation of international law, most clearly manifest in the stand-alone nature of the investor-state dispute settlement regime, has produced the unfortunate side effect of an intense focus on material damages at the expense of moral damages. This timely groundbreaking book seeks to remedy the unfairness and injustice that flows from this difference in treatment by offering a thorough review of the underlying rules and principles of international law relating to moral damages claims, with a view to considering the appropriateness and possibility of convergence of the various sub-disciplines or branches of international law (e.g., international investment law and international human rights law) to preserve and protect the coherence, uniformity and stability of the international legal order.

The analysis covers such central issues as the following:

who should be entitled to seek moral damages;  the legal test to determining moral damages claims, in respect of both substantive and evidential issues; applicability and scope of the theory of corrective justice in moral damages claims; the victim status of natural persons, corporations, and investors’ employees in investor-state disputes; quantification of moral damages; what the precise nature of the compensation ought to be; and  role of the theory of law and economics in the context of moral damages claims. Decisions of international human rights courts are examined to assess, by way of comparison, the appropriateness of the stance taken by international investment tribunals.

This is the first in-depth treatment of the important question of whether and under which circumstances international investment tribunals should have jurisdiction to award moral damages, as well as the remedies available and the quantification exercise guiding compensation. The analysis will prove invaluable to practitioners and academics eager to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the rules and principles applicable to moral damages claims under international investment law.