Blockchain: An alternative approach for recognition and enforcement of Investment Treaty Arbitration awards

Abstract: An issue in investment treaty arbitration is the extreme effort needed to obtain recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award. Even though the 1958 New York Convention was signed to simplify the process of recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award, in the new digital world, the recognition and enforceability risks of authenticating an investment treaty arbitral award need to be reconsidered. Ultimately, it is the enforceability of the award that gives credence to the entire arbitration process and justifies the costs and time that the parties of a dispute have invested in the resolution process. Thus, upcoming technologies like blockchain could be a part of the future in Investment Treaty Arbitration (ITA) to provide more efficiency and benefits for the rendering an arbitral award. With blockchain, ITA awards could be rooted in digital code, stored in a transparent platform, and protected from removal, tampering, and modification, resolving the necessity to prove the existence of a duly rendered award, previnting additional costs and procedures. The thesis discusses how blockchain could solve recognition and enforcement issues in an investor-state dispute resolution (ISDS) scenario. It introduces legal aspects of the possible application of blockchain technology in investment treaty disputes. It has the purpose to study the possible benefits that blockchain could bring to Investment Treaty Arbitration with particular attention to the recognition and enforcement of investment treaty arbitration awards. The peculiarity of blockchain technology is that it might represent an opportunity to restructure the investments protection paradigm by implementing a trustworthy, transparent, more affordable, highly standardized, time-stamped and automated recognition and enforcement of ITA arbitral awards. Finally, blockchain might not be the solution to all the problems of ISDS. However, it offers a foundation that can bring a new entire value chain by guaranteeing immediate recognition and enforceability of arbitral awards and getting rid of the deficiencies that the actual system has. This would give more legal certainty to the parties of the ITA in the recognition and enforcement of award on investor-state disputes.