The Use of Object and Purpose by Trade and Investment Adjudicators: Convergence Without Interaction

Abstract

This chapter compares the practice of trade and investment adjudicators in relation to the requirement to interpret a treaty 'in the light of its object and purpose'. It begins by identifying a range of issues and choices that adjudicators face in relation to applying this interpretative element, and the practical barriers to any significant degree of judicial interaction or cross-fertilization between trade and investment adjudicators with respect to those issues. It then shows that notwithstanding the absence of judicial interaction, there is a remarkable degree of convergence in the legal reasoning of trade and investment adjudicators on these diverse issues.