The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, in collaboration with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), held an exploratory meeting on the desirability and feasibility of an Advisory Centre on International Investment Law (ACIIL) today (24 April 2018) at the Mission premises.
Ambassador Dr. Amrith Rohan Perera, Permanent Representative and Dr. Karl P. Sauvant, Resident Senior Fellow, Columbia Center on Sustainable Development, Columbia Law School, and Senior Fellow, ICTSD, co-chaired the informal meeting.
The meeting, attended by Legal Advisors/Sixth (Legal) Committee Experts and UNCITRAL delegates, was held on the sidelines of the 35th session of Working Group III on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade law (UNCITRAL) currently being held from 23-27 April at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The focus of the meeting was to discuss the resource and capacity challenges faced by developing countries, least developed countries and economies in transition to defend themselves as respondents in investment disputes, be it in the context of the investor-state dispute-settlement (ISDS) mechanism, or a multilateral court for the settlement of investment disputes, if established.
The meeting brought to the surface the nature and complexity of the issues surrounding the possible establishment of such an advisory Center, with many states opining that a first step would be to conduct a feasibility study into the possible establishment of such a centre.