A proposal for International Court of State and Corporate Disputes - the ICSCD

The present study focuses on the gaps and lacunas of the current international legal system as a unified system, specialising in commercial and investment disputes arising between sovereign states and Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs). As shown extensively throughout this work, the lack of such court in an ever-tightening global economy has some rather severe implications both for the states and (to a lesser degree) for MNEs. Although numerous attempts have been made to rectify the situation, successful and comprehensive outcomes are still lacking. In response, this thesis proposes establishment of an International Court of State and Corporate Disputes (hereinafter ICSCD) as an answer to the various legal problems that the current system does not address. This type of court would give a coherence and finality to an international court system, both of which are mandatory for any legal system. Thus, this work presents an integration of the most important issues demonstrating the need for such a comprehensive system, and deepens the discussion on their inherited complexities and ramifications. Most significantly, it also attempts to show, as an original contribution to this field of study, how the ICSCD may provide satisfying answers for these issues ; i.e. definition of MNEs status and personality, conflict of interest between national and international courts, lack of an international commercial court that has jurisdiction world-wide, compliance, and enforceability of decisions.