This book explores the use of Third-Party Funding (TPF) in Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a transformative yet controversial instrument that implicates procedural fairness, the commodification of justice, public interest, and state sovereignty in investment law.
TPF is a topical, yet underexamined topic within international arbitration. With the TPF market now estimated to exceed USD 15 billion, its role in enabling investors to pursue expensive, high-value investment claims has attracted attention. The book comprehensively analyses the use of TPF in the context of the ISDS system, highlighting issues such as influence on the decision to settle, conflicts of interest, effects on procedural fairness, wealth transfer, and the commodification of justice. It argues that attempts to reform TPF have mainly focused on a narrow set of issues that may arise during arbitral practice, specifically the issue of potential conflicts of interest between funders and arbitrators, resulting in regulatory gaps. Amid recently completed and ongoing reform efforts by institutions such as UNCITRAL, this book offers a timely and critical analysis of the use of TPF in ISDS. It will combine theoretical insights, real-world examples, case law, and a comparative overview of current and proposed regulations to provide practical policy and regulatory suggestions.
The book will be of interest to researchers in the field of international arbitration and investment law.