On 20 June 2018, the European Union Delegation to Egypt and CRCICA organized a seminar on: Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Exploring the Multilateral Investment Court Initiative. The Guest Speaker was Mr. Colin Brown, Deputy Head of Unit Dispute Settlement and Legal Aspects of Trade Policy, Directorate-General for Trade with the European Commission. Moderated by Dr. Dalia Hussein, CRCICA Deputy Director, the Seminar reflected a useful debate exposing the two arguments supporting and criticizing the Multilateral Investment Court Initiative and bringing to the audience a comprehensive analysis of the Investor-State Dispute Scenery.

Mr. Brown tackled the main features of a multilateral investment court and how they are meant to address the shortcomings of the current ISDS, its advantages for investors and states were also explained. Moreover, Mr. Jeremy Sharpe, Partner, Shearman & Sterling (London) LLP delivered a presentation on “The multilateral investment court: Questions and Criticisms”. Mr. Sharpe compared the European Court Initiative mechanism to other existing ones and examined its ability to deliver on the stated goals, i.e., neutrality, effectiveness, legal predictability and coherent dispute settlement system.

Other panelists were Dr. Ahmed El-Kosheri, Senior Partner at Kosheri, Rashed and Riad Law Firm and Dr. El Sayed Torky, Senior Advisor for the Federation of Egyptian Industries.

The event was widely attended by representatives of the majority of stakeholders including the Egyptian Lawsuit Authority, State Council, the Egyptian General Investment Authority (GAFI), Consumer Protection Agency, Ministries of Justice, Investment and Petroleum, five eminent universities, private sector companies, Italian Chamber of Commerce, Embassies of the USA, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Belgium, Lithuania and Bulgaria.