Nicola Strain

• Strain, Nicola Claire & Fikfak, Veronika (2025). Compliance through Enforcement in ISDS: What can UNCITRAL Working Group III learn from the ECtHR? EJIL:Talk!. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://www.ejiltalk.org/compliance-through-enforcement-in-isds-what-can-uncitral-working-group-iii-learn-from-the-ecthr/

• Strain, Nicola Claire; Lie, Runar Hilleren; Chernykh, Yuliya; Espelid, Even; John, Taylor St & Langford, Malcolm [Show all 20 contributors for this article] (2024). Compliance politics and international investment disputes: a new dataset. Journal of international economic law. ISSN 1369-3034. 27(1), p. 70–92. doi: 10.1093/jiel/jgae004. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The ability to ensure compliance with investor-state arbitral awards is often regarded as one of the strengths of the international investment regime. Yet, there have been few systematic studies of compli- ance to assess the extent to which states have actually complied with adverse investor-state compensa- tion awards. This paper presents a new dataset that enables empirical research on compliance with these decisions; it is the first publicly available dataset to focus on what happens after awards are handed down, and in this way complements other databases on international investment law. This paper explains the data collection process (and its associated challenges), discusses the design choices made in selecting inputs and variables, presents a descriptive overview of the data, and examines how variables can be used in future research. Moreover, various cases are used as illustrations of the challenges of collecting and coding data on post-award processes and we explore what missing data can tell us abou

• Strain, Nicola Claire (2023). Methodological Consistency in the Interpretation of International Treaties in Investor-State Arbitration - An Empirical Study. In Moss, Giuditta Cordero & Arroyo, Diego P. Fernandez (Ed.), Applicable Law Issues in International Arbitration. Brill | Nijhoff. ISSN 9789004682382. p. 209–235. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2023). The Intersection between Global Health Law and Investor-State Disputes: Assessing the Potential for Fragmentation after a Global Pandemic. In Fan, Kun & Weng, Xiao-Chun Charlie (Ed.), COVID-19 and International Business and Economic Law: China and a Changing World. Academy Publishing. ISSN 9789811862007. p. 107–139. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2022). Invoking Systemic Ideals or Systemic Rules? Jurisdiction in WTO and Investor-State Dispute Settlement. Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht. ISSN 0044-2348. 82(2), p. 401–424. doi: 10.17104/0044-2348-2022-2-401. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  How do international economic adjudicators approach the question of systemic integration? Systemic integration could be a powerful tool in the defragmentation of the international legal order. Yet, it is a complex tool, coalescing between a legal rule of interpretation and normative ideal of a coherent international legal order. By undertaking an empirical and doctrinal review of the decisions of the WTO and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms, the paper illustrates both the underutilisation and inconsistent application of the principle within the reasoning of those adjudicators. The paper analyses how international economic law adjudicators attempt (or perhaps fail) to define the indeterminate legal authority of systemic integration. What is contributing to this methodological pluralism in the application of systemic integration? The paper investigates both the competing “law-applying” or “law-making” adjudicative functions and the limitations of tribunal jurisdiction as possible explanations for the competing perceptions of the role of systemic integration in international economic dispute resolution. The underutilisation and inconsistency of systemic integration in the WTO and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms highlights the need to bridge the gap, both theoretically and doctrinally, in understanding how systemic ideals fit within legal rules.

• Strain, Nicola Claire (2021). Invoking Systemic Ideals or Legal Rules? How International Economic Tribunals Approach Systemic Integration and Jurisdiction. völkerrechtsblog. ISSN 2510-2567. doi: 10.17176/20210901-112603-0. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2019). Regulating Collective Resources under Multilateral Treaties: The Decision in Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v Japan). Melbourne Journal of International Law. ISSN 1444-8602. 20(2), p. 572–597. Full text in Research Archive

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• Strain, Nicola Claire (2024). The Adjudicator’s Toolkit and the Force of International Law: Comparing Trade and Investment Disputes. Brill | Nijhoff. ISBN 9789004700932. 386 p. doi: 10.1163/9789004700932. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Adjudicators have been placed at the forefront in the search for systemic order within the pluralist international legal order, acting as guardians of the international legal system. Yet, they do so under increasing pressure from the governments. Based on one of the most comprehensive and systematic empirical and doctrinal studies of international trade and investment adjudication, this book asks which tools adjudicators turn to when faced with this dilemma. Dr. Nicola Strain provides new insights on the design choices and normative goals of international economic adjudication, explaining how adjudicators end up consistently inconsistent in their application of international law, even within the more technocratic WTO regime.

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• Strain, Nicola (2024). To Appeal or Comply with Adverse Awards? Exploring Annulment, Set-Aside and the Finality of ISDS Awards. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2023). Compliance with Investment Arbitration Awards and the Limits of International Law. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola; Lie, Runar Hilleren; Chernykh, Yuliya; John, Taylor St; Espelid, Even & Langford, Malcolm [Show all 19 contributors for this article] (2023). Compliance Politics and International Investment Disputes: A New Dataset. SSRN Electronic Journal. Full text in Research Archive
• Espelid, Even; Strain, Nicola Claire & John, Taylor St (2023). Compliance with International Investment Awards. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2023). Enforcers of Fairness? The Use (or Abuse) of Annulment Proceedings. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2022). PluriCourts Lunch Seminar: Jurisdictional Limits of International Economic Law. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2021). PluriCourts Lunch Seminar: Jurisdiction in a Fragmented Legal Order: Empirical Analysis of the WTO and ISDS Regimes. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2021). Shai Dothan, International Judicial Review: When Should International Courts Intervene? Leiden Journal of International Law. ISSN 0922-1565. 34(1), p. 271–274. doi: 10.1017/S0922156520000576. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2021). Invoking Ideals over Legal Rules. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2021). Consent and the System of International Law. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2020). Confusion and Uncertainty in Procedure: The Forgotten Problem of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in International Economic Disputes. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2020). Assessing emergencies before investor-state arbitral tribunals: BITs fit for purpose to address global health pandemics? Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2019). The Murky Waters of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in International Economic Disputes. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In comparison to many common law domestic systems, there is much less discussion of jurisdiction in international court judgments, leading to a more limited understanding of the limits of international courts’ jurisdiction. This has led to inconsistent, and sometimes incoherent, decisions on the jurisdiction of international tribunals, including by the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) dispute settlement mechanism and investor-state arbitral tribunals. As the limits of the term, ‘jurisdiction’ is relatively unclear, the line between ‘jurisdiction’ and ‘applicable law’ is necessarily blurred. For some scholars, there is a “crucial distinction” between jurisdiction and applicable law, noting that a limited jurisdiction does not imply a limitation of the scope of the applicable law. Comparatively, other scholars appear to link jurisdiction and applicable law by referring to applicable law as part of the jurisdictional authority of the international tribunal to determine the dispute. While such distinction might seem to be merely an academic debate, the distinction between jurisdiction and applicable law is significant to determining the precise scope of the jurisdiction and applicable law to decide questions under other branches of public international law. For the WTO and investor-state arbitrations, the distinction is particularly meaningful given the substantial opportunity for overlap between trade, investment and other branches of public international law. If we take the approach of linking jurisdiction and applicable law suggested by some scholars, this results in a narrow view of the scope of international economic law to consider any other branches of public international law. On the other hand, the “crucial distinction” view arguably enables other branches of public international law to be applied as part of the applicable law. Overall, the tribunals’ application of the distinction will have implications for the interpretation of the outer limits of States’ consent to the dispute settlement system. This paper attempts to analyse relevant literature and case law to determine a coherent definition of, and distinction between, jurisdiction and applicable law in international economic law. Developing a clearer picture of the distinction between these two concepts should help us to come to a greater understanding of the intersection between international economic law and other branches of public international law.

• Strain, Nicola Claire (2019). The Murky Waters of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in International Economic Disputes. Full text in Research Archive
• Strain, Nicola Claire (2022). Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Investor-State and WTO Dispute Settlement: Comparing Consent and Inconsistency in the Application of Other International Law. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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