Philip Morris v. Uruguay Through the Lens of the ISDS Trilemma

Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) legitimacy crisis reveals that we should rethink the assumption that ISDS global governance, foreign investors’ locus standi, and regulatory sovereignty (the three vertexes of a triangle) can be attained simultaneously. Namely, the regime confronts a trilemma in which only two of the vertexes can be pursued at the same time. This chapter examines the trilemma and focuses on Philip Morris v. Uruguay (ICSID Case No. ARB/10/7) as an example of how ISDS global governance and foreign investors’ locus standi challenges regulatory sovereignty.