This Note examines the historical evolution of the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) law in Latin America as the context for analyzing a range of innovative practices of various countries in the region in response to perceived imbalances in the application and effect of the ISDS law on national sovereignty. This Note develops a typology of three main trends among the innovations and responses by groups of countries in the region to ISDS law. The Note also analyzes some key decisions of the Colombian Constitutional Court as particularly illuminating of the ways in which one large group of Latin American countries has reconciled their concerns for national sovereignty and regulatory autonomy with the evolving body of treaty-based and customary law of investor protections at the international level.

Keeping Reading