Most investor-state research studies treaties. UNCTAD's newest report studies statutes instead — and finds the same risks hiding in plainer sight. Background UNCTAD published Investment Policy Monitor, Issue No. 32, on 4 December 2025, under the title Investor–State Arbitration under Investment Laws: Risks and Policy Lessons. It builds on the earlier Investment Policy Monitor No. 29, which had tracked global trends in the drafting of national investment laws, and turns instea

Singapore's commercial court turns ten, and starts doing work that looks a lot like arbitration's job. Background The Singapore International Commercial Court held a conference marking its tenth anniversary in January 2025, drawing more than 420 delegates from fifteen jurisdictions. A decade in, the court's docket has moved well beyond the general cross-border commercial disputes it was originally designed to hear, into territory that overlaps increasingly with the traditiona

Romania is leaving the Energy Charter Treaty — but Article 47's twenty-year sunset clause means the treaty's investment protections outlive the withdrawal itself. A look at why exiting an energy treaty is not the same as being free of it.

A PCA tribunal declined jurisdiction over Zeph Investments' USD 305 billion claim against Australia. What the award tells us about who qualifies as a foreign investor.

Orsted is majority State-owned and lost a nearly complete wind project to a regulatory order. Whether such an investor can even reach ICSID is an unsettled question.

Shell has signalled a treaty claim against Bolivia over an annulled award and criminal proceedings. Why the forum question comes first, and why Bolivia is a hard respondent.