Multinational Enterprises’ Compliance with Labour Standards in International Investment Law and Arbitration

This inquiry aims at providing a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the labour protection granted by both international investment law and arbitration. More in detail, it starts by retracing the long process which, progressively overcoming the traditional fragmentation of the international legal system, led to the development of legal solutions aimed at satisfying the claim for harmonisation between investment concerns, on the one hand, and labour protection, on the other. Against this backdrop, the analysis addresses institutions such as corporate social responsibility, the ‘right to regulate’ doctrine and the principle of proportionality, as well as – at the procedural level – the counterclaim. It concludes trying to outline a trend for the current evolution of conventional investment law practice.