The Human Right of Freedom of Expression in Investor-State Arbitration

Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) by arbitration under bilateral investment treaties (BITs) frequently entails the application of international law extrinsic to the BIT itself, either as a principle of interpretation or by importation to the BIT of external rules as a matter of construction. Since the Second World War, a huge domain of law has been developed by international tribunals under human rights treaties. These treaties are international law instruments of equal status to any BIT. However, when claimants have brought ISDS claims relating to investments in television and radio broadcasting, human rights law, in particular the right of freedom of expression, has often been ignored or dismissed by arbitral tribunals. Yet a jurisprudence constante in human rights tribunals clearly provides that there is a presumption in favour of freedom to broadcast, a presumption potentially material to the merits of such disputes. The conventional protections provided to investors under BITs require tribunals to apply human rights law, with the result that the presumption of freedom to broadcast throws a burden on states to justify the withholding of necessary permissions. As political interference with free media, often foreign-owned, continues to be reported, the societal responsibility of tribunals to take such rights seriously becomes pressing. ISDS, investment treaty, arbitration, broadcasting licence, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, censorship, political interference