On Friday, January 10, 2025, at 9 a.m. CET, Prof. Dr. iur. Claus Dieter Classen from the University of Greifswald will give a lecture on “Investment Arbitration – legitimate protection of property rights or danger for democracy and the rule of law?”.
International Investment Treaties and Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms were created to protect investors from arbitrary expropriation and ensure their non-discriminatory treatment in host states. More recently, they have been increasingly criticised for having a chilling effect on sovereign regulatory powers in social and environmental matters, with the risk of corporate impunity for infringing local communities’ rights and causing environmental harm. Investment arbitration is also criticised for undermining substantive and procedural justice as the awards are often unpredictable, the procedures lacking transparency and the arbitrators’ impartiality not beyond doubt.
Professor Classen holds the chair for Public law, European and International law at the Faculty of Law and the Theory of the State of the University of Greifswald. He is also a judge at the Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court of Appeal of the Land of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The event is hosted by the Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. The venue is: Collegium Rubrum, 2nd floor, Auditorium Hall (no. 207) Al. Niepodległości 53, Poznań. The lecture is part of a series dedicated to different aspects of Business and Human Rights (BHR), including environmental and climate protection. The event is organized with financial support from the National Science Center, as part of the project Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence – the Case of Implementation into National Law (ref. no. 2021/41/B/HS5/01557).
