The Paranoid Style of Investment Lawyers and Arbitrators: Investment Law Norm Entrepreneurs and their Critics

Investment arbitration lawyers and scholars have been reluctant to admit that there is any impending threat to the survival of investor-state dispute settlement. There is no legitimacy crisis, they maintain, at most there is a public relations problem. Sornarajah, however, has been predicting the demise investor-state dispute settlement for some time, even as the evidence for this remains tentative and uneven. Despite their exhibition of confidence, investment lawyers appear worried nevertheless. They have been issuing intemperate screeds, accusing critics of being 'misguided,' 'shrill' 'propagandists,' and spreading 'lies.' This paper examines some of the evidence that provides grounds for confidence and concern on the part of investment policy entrepreneurs. The paper also offers some thoughts on why investment lawyers, on those rare occasions when they choose to engage with their critics, do so in these belligerent terms.