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Investor Presentaiton

130 INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT: A SEQUEL choose a law to govern their relations. The same principle of party autonomy manifests itself in contracts concluded between investors and host States. Such contracts may designate the law of the host State, of the investor's home State, or of a third State, as the governing law. The provision also contains a default choice-of-law regime that applies in the absence of a special agreement between the parties (domestic law of the host State, the treaty and applicable rules of international law), which is helpful in situations where there is no underlying contract between the investor and the host State. (iv) No provision on applicable law Some IIAs are silent regarding the applicable law in ISDS cases. In this situation, the applicable arbitration rules will provide a default solution. For instance, Article 42(1) of the ICSID Convention provides that: "The tribunal shall decide a dispute in accordance with such rules of law as may be agreed by the parties. In the absence of such agreement, the Tribunal shall apply the law of the Contracting State party to the dispute (including its rules on the conflict of laws) and such rules of international law as may be applicable." The ICSID Convention thus gives primacy to the domestic law of the host State unless the parties otherwise agree. This is typically the case in investment arbitration, where the investment treaty (including its applicable-law clause, if any) represents the law agreed to by the parties. The UNCITRAL Rules provide that in the absence of agreement between the parties, the tribunal shall apply the law "which it UNCTAD Series on International Investment Agreements II
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