International Investor-State Disputes Arbitration Through Energy Justice Lenses: Opening the Case for “Greening Through Free Trade” Narratives

This chapter focuses on international investment arbitration through the lens of energy justice. It unfolds against the backdrop of a growing intersection between international trade, investments, and the urgent need for climate action. Recently, trade and investment agreements have included environmental provisions, but their effectiveness remains controversial. Concurrently, the energy and mining sectors account for a significant 40–50% of the disputes brought before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes each year. In this context, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is a particularly controversial instrument and raises strong questions related to its influence on energy governance. The chapter underscores how energy justice can offer a powerful vantage point for evaluating the functioning of ISDS. Then, it argues for the urgent need to reform the architecture of ISDS to bring it into line with the principles of energy justice, in view of considering international investments as an appropriate lever for global energy-climate transitions. This includes a call for improved transparency and active engagement with local actors to redress the procedural, distributive, and restorative imbalances that currently characterise ISDS awards.