The Interaction of Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) Clauses With Dispute Settlement Provisions in Investment Treaties : A New Continent to Discover?

Abstract: The master thesis provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the scope of most-favoured-nation clauses, focusing on the application of such clauses to dispute resolution mechanisms in bilateral investment treaty’s (BIT). The ICSID decision in Maffezini was the first in a series to extend the scope of an MFN clause to dispute resolution in such context. Traditionally, such a clause had been relied on regarding substantive rights. The debate evoked by this and subsequent decisions of arbitral tribunals, which often conflict with each other in their outcome and in their analytic methodology, illustrates the controversy of this issue.