Global Arbitration Review Reports on Simon Batifort's Presentation at the 4th OECD Conference on Investment Treaties

Simon Batifort, Counsel in the International Arbitration Group in New York, was featured in a GAR article on the OECD’s latest Conference on Investment Treaties held in Paris in March 2018. The article highlights key insights from Mr. Batifort’s presentation on the policy arguments in favor of cutting back on the use of MFN clauses to “import” provisions from one investment treaty to another, which, as he pointed out, “open[s] the door for creative investors and their lawyers to ignore the carefully negotiated text of a BIT and instead amalgamate treaty language from multiple BITs to create a ‘fantasy treaty.’” The conference was attended by representatives from numerous States, including Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, and the United States, which are currently considering avenues for reform of the regime of investment treaty arbitration.