Orderliness and Coherence in International Investment Law and Arbitration: An Analysis Through the Lens of State of Necessity

The article addresses the need for orderliness and coherence in international investment law. It does so by reference to Argentina’s various claims to necessity in CMS, LG&E, Continental Casualty Co., Enron and Sempra. After having analysed the various doctrinal positions regarding orderliness of international investment law and the need for coherence in this area of international law (both from the perspective of the consistency among investment awards and from the perspective of the integration of other areas of international law within investment disputes), the work reaches the conclusion that arbitrators should endorse an approach according to which, on the one hand, they should not ignore what is done by other tribunals (we can talk of investment arbitration as a network needing internal coherence) and, on the other hand, they should always take into consideration values protected by other areas of international law and general interna- tional law (in which investment arbitration is fully integrated).