ABSTRACT
The International Law Commission (ILC) aims to promote ‘the progressive development of international law and its codification’. Following several decades of development of international investment law, some scholars argue that the time is ripe for the ILC to codify it. Contrary to such argument, this chapter considers that the timing of codifying international investment law is unripe due to three reasons: the ILC’s illegitimacy over multifaceted aspects of international law; the evolving sources of international investment law; and the risk embedded in its codification. Then it proposes that a common law approach to international investment law can be adopted to better serve the needs of the international investment legal community for the following reasons: the focus of compensation, and the significant role of precedents. By shining light on the common law approach, this chapter hopes to better serve the international investment legal community amid today’s great transformations in society, technology, and politics.
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ByJi Ma, Time to Codify International Investment Law? Not yet in Asif H Qureshi (ed), Law Reforms Around the World: Perspectives from National and International Law (Routledge, December 2023).
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