7th May 2019

Court of Justice of the EU: The mechanism for the resolution of disputes between investors and States provided for by CETA

On 30 October 2016 Canada, on the one hand, and the EU and its Member States, on the other, signed a free trade agreement: the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (‘the CETA’). One of the aims of the part of the CETA concerned with investment is to establish a mechanism for the settlement of disputes between investors and States. In that context, what is envisaged is the creation of a Tribunal and an Appellate Tribunal and, in the longer term, a multilateral investment tribunal. The aim is thus to establish an ‘Investment Court System’ (ICS).

On 7 September 2017 Belgium requested the opinion1 of the Court of Justice concerning the compatibility of the mechanism for the settlement of disputes with EU primary law. In essence, Belgium expresses doubts as to the effects of that mechanism on the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court over the definitive interpretation of EU law, and therefore the autonomy of the EU legal order, as to its compatibility with the general principle of equal treatment and the requirement that EU law should be effective, and as to whether that mechanism complies with the right of access to an independent and impartial tribunal.

>> Read full version.

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic