Results of the ninth competition for the International Law in the XXI Century Award

We are happy to announce the winner of the competition, Adam Nalgiev with the paper Inconsistency in practice of investment tribunals on the issues of proof: does the reform have anything to offer?

It is devoted to the investor-State dispute settlement reform, but approaches it from a different angle. The paper is first to analyze a well-known problem of inconsistent practice of investment tribunals and the ways of resolving it offered currently within the context of the tribunals’ approaches to the issues of burden and standard of proof which, in some instances, also happen to be diametrically opposite. Considering that the applicable law or circumstances of the particular case usually do not predetermine different decisions, such practice has no less negative influence on the legitimacy of the existing system of settlement of investment disputes and must be accounted for when discussing prospective reform options. The author seeks to evaluate the extent to which the reform options suggested today are capable of tackling the problem described, as well as offers to consider additional reform avenue – the adoption of the “soft law” instruments on the issues of burden and standards of proof in the shape of guiding principles.

The Award Council has also highly commended and suggested for publication three papers:

• EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in light of the law of the World Trade Organization by Alexey Nikitin;
• Investor-State dispute settlement reform initiatives of European Union: Investment chapter of Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between European Union and Canada by Artem Kasumyan;
• The invisible part of the puzzle: The role of individual judges' opinions in the administration of international justice through the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice by Vladislav Donakanian.

The winner is awarded a cash prize of 300,000 rubles. The authors of the highly commended papers receive certificates for the purchase of legal literature from the Organizer of the Competition, the International and Comparative Law Research Center.

Our congratulations to the winner and the authors of the highly commended papers, thanks to all the participants and good luck!

The tenth anniversary competition will be announced very soon. Follow the information on the Center’s website and social networks!