Vietnam and Europe (EU) has developed the diplomatic ties since 1990, and keep strengthening through the new Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and Europe countries members (EVFTA). The purpose of this Agreement is to strengthen and broaden the currently ties between two parties in trade area, environment, energy, science and technology, good governance, human rights, tourism, culture, migration and the fight against corruption and organized crime. Specially, the Agreement also innovate in the investment area when proposing the new investment dispute settlement. EVFTA is a new generation Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with many trade liberalization contents and a greater and higher degree of integration than previous similar agreements.
The existence of international law began from 18 century, and it has developed in 2000s. This leads to the investment activities over the border, and result more than International Investment Agreements (IIAs) established and govern the investment relationship between the receiving state and foreign investors. As the basis, the source of international investment law is also developed in that period with over 3000 IIAs. Under this development of international investment law, the settlement dispute in this area also has developed. There are several main dispute settlement mechanism such as state-state dispute settlement, investor-state dispute settlement, and domestic court.
Nowadays, most of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) or FTA that Vietnam participates includes mostly the Investor – State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision to handle the dispute with investors. During the application these ISDS regulations, some drawbacks of ISDS reveal and Vietnam and EU negotiate to reach a new regulation replacing it. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the most common argument against ISDS in the EVFTA and how this provision of the ISDS can be altered to prevent the negative effects of the ISDS opponents. The dissertation is also concerned with the new system-the provision of the Investment Court System (ICS) can replace the old ISDS system which has exclusive competence for any dispute over EVFTA investments.
This dissertation will discuss about how the ICS would function and analyze the institution. Whether the new system is fair and should replace the ISDS system or not. This dissertation will conclude with recommendation whether the ICS is a good dispute settlement system and Vietnamese government ratify the FTA is on the right track and need to prepare when the treaty implement or not.
This dissertation includes 5 chapters. Each chapter will contribute to the overall of the thesis, specifically: Introduction; history, development and resources of international investment law and international investment dispute settlements; structure and substantive provisions investment under EVFTA; ICS versus ISDS for EVFTA; conclusion.