The Renewed Role of States in Investment Arbitration – Report of the 6th EFILA Annual Conference 2021

The 6th EFILA Annual Conference dedicated to “The Renewed Role of States in Arbitration” was hosted virtually by Herbert Smith Freehills on 14 and 15 January 2021. The first panel kicked off the Conference by discussing “The Renewed role of States in Arbitration”. This was followed by a keynote speech by Prof. Gary Born on the “Multilateral Investment Court”. The second panel then debated the points raised by the keynote. The second day of the Conference began with a panel on the “Toolbox of States against Claimants” and was followed by a panel on “Best Practices for Defending Investor-State Damage Claims on Quantum”. This report provides an overview of each of the panel discussions as well as the keynote speech. The 6th EFILA Annual Conference, which took place online on 14 and 15 January 2021, was devoted to the theme “The Renewed Role of States in Arbitration”. The Conference was introduced by Prof. Loukas Mistelis (Queen Mary University of London and EFILA). In his opening remarks, Prof. Mistelis observed that a debate on the legitimacy of investment arbitration has developed in the past 15 years. He noted that States are progressively seeking to regain the primary role in the investment law-making and dispute resolution processes, and EFILA is attentive to this trend.