A Study On The Legal System Of "Friends Of The Court" In International Arbitration Arbitration Arbitration

As the economy is booming, capitals start to flow all over the world rather than in a country or a region. International investment is a typical way of capital flows. And in this way, disputes between the foreign investors and the host country government are constantly emerging. In fact, the international investment disputes arbitration was kept secret for a long period of time, because of its history. However, it is quite different from the international commercial arbitration in several ways. The most important is that the invest disputes arbitration is about the public interest, and if the country lose the case, the people have to pay for it. In such circumstances, it was not appropriate to keep it a whole secrecy, and amicus curiae were introduced into the investment disputes arbitration mechanism, who get involved in the arbitration by offering relevant information about the facts or law. And it has been gradually recognized by the public by used in the cases and the rules.This paper is focused on the Amicus Curiae in the international investment disputes arbitration mechanism. I hope that we could have a better understanding about its development and its present situation, so that we are able to give advices on how to enhance the participation of amicus curiae and how our country could use it in the future.The paper consists of four parts altogether.The first part is the basic theory of amicus curiae. First, it talks about the definition and the features of amicus curiae. They are independent, neutral, and professional in some fields. They have one clear goal that is to help the court. Second, it talks about the evolution of the amicus curiae, from domestic law to international law, from litigation to arbitration.The second chapter analyses the regulations and practices of amicus curiae in international investment disputes mechanism. It analyses the rules in NAFTA, ICSID and UNCITRAL about amicus curiae and discuss the cases which happened in the ICSID and NAFTA. All in all, the system is becoming better and better and it is accepted by more and more people.The third chapter makes comments on the system. First, we make comments on the current system, including how will it develops and the problems that exist in the system. Second, we try to get a better understanding of the different attitudes of different countries towards the problem. We find that developed countries are more positive than the developing countries. The reasons which lead to the result are including the development of economy, the development of their NGOs and their legal systems.In the fourth chapter, I think we should reasonably enhance the participation of amicus curiae according to the analysis above. First, I try to give good advices to the problem of the system. We have to recognize that every coin has two sides, so we should make a balance between the third party’s participation and the confidentiality. It is a crucial when we want to introduce amicus curiae into the mechanism. Some actions could be taken to enhance the third party’s participation. Finally, I think that China should have a positive attitude in the process and we should make our effort to use it better in the future.