Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia

The Department of Foundations of Law in the Faculty of Law cordially invites you to the next meeting of our Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia. On 30 October, our speaker is Monica Garcia Salmones from Maastricht University - Title: Now and Yet Not New: Principles of Global Law-Making in UNCITRAL Working Group III

Abstract:
The chapter deals with the special legal nature of the outcome of the work of UNCITRAL Working Group III in its efforts to reform the mechanism of Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), that is, of conflicts between private and public actors involved globally in investments. Independently of considerations about whether the reforms are radical or substantial enough, there is little doubt that the results of WGIII are tackling issues that seemed unassailable until very recently, such as the lack of regard to public interest in important international arbitral decisions. From a perspective of international legal theory, we do not know exactly how to qualify this successful movement of legal reform originating in the UNCITRAL. Are the outcomes of the WGIII merely multilateralism that has ‘worked out’, or are they what we could call global law? The chapter will focus on the relevance of the question of ‘time’ for the ascertaining the existence of universal principles of global law, rather than approaching the vexed question of the ‘universal’ operating in a transcendental space, that is, as a dualistic method of particularization of the universal. 


The colloquium’s format is pre-read. Those attending are expected to have read the text in advance. The draft will be circulated in advance.

Convenors:
Lukasz Dziedzic
Sebastian Reyes Molina
Roland Pierik

The colloquia will take place physically and online. The Zoom link for the online sessions will be distributed later.