Singapore bids to host UN investment disputes tribunal
What's next: UNCITRAL negotiators are still drafting the tribunal and appellate rules, with another working-group meeting due in October.
Singapore is bidding to host a proposed Multilateral Investment Tribunal being negotiated at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, Law Minister Edwin Tong said Tuesday. The court-in-the-making would hear disputes between foreign investors and states and is meant to replace today’s ad hoc arbitration system. Tong said Singapore would provide a dedicated hearing venue if its bid succeeds. The push comes as investor-state cases have climbed, with more than half of known treaty-based filings since 1987 brought in the past decade, while critics have questioned inconsistent rulings and arbitrator independence. Singapore cast its pitch as support for a rules-based international order under strain.