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An investment chapter in TTIP offers an unprecedented opportunity to reform and improve the system of investment law. If the EU and the US seize this opportunity, it would set an important precedent in treaty-drafting, allowing for the incorporation of public policy objectives, thereby protecting states’ right to regulate. Ultimately, this type of concerted strategy is likely to be far stronger than the individual country strategy necessitated by the present system of over 3,000 bilateral treaties. The most important conclusion that should emerge from current discussions is that that there is a need for correct, timely and complete information for law- and policy-makers as well as the broader public, in relation to international investment law and procedures for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).

Freya Baetens is Associate Professor of Law at Leiden University, Visiting Professor at the World Trade Institute (WTI) at Berne University and Associate Lawyer with VVGB (Brussels Bar). Her paper is intended as a response to the thought-provoking study by Lauge Paulson, Jonathan Bonnitcha and Jason Webb Yackee (CEPS Special Report No 102), focusing on some of their findings that are open to discussion and structuring the arguments made along the lines of their paper. It is the fourth in a series produced in the context of the “TTIP in the Balance” project, jointly organised by CEPS and the Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR) in Washington, D.C. and is published simultaneously on the CEPS  and CTR websites.