Transnational Litigation, Arbitration, and Dispute Resolution

In 1964, the United States Congress passed a law providing that a United States district court "'may order' a person residing or found in the district to give testimony or produce documents 'for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal . . .

Since 2015, Brazil has concluded more than a dozen Cooperation and Facilitation Investment Agreements (CFIAs), in a radical departure from Brazil's earlier policy to remain out of the network of investment treaties.[1] These CFIAs include a novel system, encompassing mechanisms for preventing and settling disputes, which differs strikingly from traditional investor-state arbitration available under most bilateral investment treaties.

Preventing or managing a global pandemic such as COVID-19 requires states to strictly comply with the World Health Organization's International Health Regulations 2005 (IHRs). However, like many multilateral environment agreements, the IHRs lack a strong dispute resolution mechanism to enhance state compliance. To bridge that gap, states have incorporated several environmental conventions into free trade agreements (FTAs) over the past fifteen years.

The Spitsbergen (Svalbard) archipelago, located over 400 miles East of northern Greenland in the Arctic Ocean, was terra nullius until a 1920 treaty (Svalbard Treaty) recognized the "full and absolute sovereignty of Norway" over this territory.[1] Snow crabs settled in the region some two decades ago and have since become abundant in these waters.