The Future of Investment Treaty Arbitration in the EU Intra-EU BITs, the Energy Charter Treaty, and the Multilateral Investment Court

"In March 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) ruled in Achmea that investor-state dispute resolution provisions in intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are incompatible with EU law and ipso facto invalid. In January 2019, EU Member States issued Declarations on the Legal Consequences of the Judgment in Achmea undertaking to take steps formally to terminate intra-EU BITs. However, at present, there is no consensus among them on the implications of Achmea on the Energy Charter Treaty, the multilateral energy treaty to which the EU and its Member States are all parties. Many EU law scholars consider the Achmea judgment as the death knell to intra-EU investment treaty arbitrations. Some have even predicted the end of Investor-State Dispute Settlement itself. Investment treaty and public international law scholars and legal practitioners, however, have a different view of the schism now growing between EU and inter