During the week of 22 September 2025, States once again met in Vienna under Working Group III (WGIII) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to deliberate reforms to investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS). Since receiving its mandate in 2017, WGIII has been tasked with identifying and addressing concerns about the ISDS system embedded in investment…

The 53rd Session of UNCITRAL Working Group III (WGIII), held in mid-January 2026 in New York, marked another modest but revealing step in the long road toward reforming investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS). The meeting delivered some progress, particularly in clarifying what kind of legal instrument(s) might eventually emerge from the cluster of partially linked reform options grouped together for discussion…

Introduction On 30 March 2026, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court issued Dictamen 19-25-TI/26A, conditionally approving the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments between Ecuador and the United Arab Emirates (the “UAE BIT”), including the investor-State dispute settlement (“ISDS”) mechanism established in Article 20. The ruling concludes a two-stage constitutional review: on 5 March 2026,…