Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in U.S. FTAs with Korea, Panama, Peru and Colombia: Basic Designs, Key Characteristics and Implications
| Author | Jaemin Lee |
| Position | Professor of Law, School of Law, Seoul National University. Ph.D., LL.M., LL.B. (Seoul National Univ.) |
| Pages | 487-504 |
Dispute settlement mechanisms in u.s. Ftas
with Korea, panama, peru anD colombia: basic Designs,
Key characteristics anD implications
Jaemin Lee*
Seoul National University, Korea
ABSTRACT
The United States concluded free trade agreements (FTAs) with Korea, Peru, Panama
and Colombia in late 2000s. Since the four FTAs were negotiated and concluded
largely contemporaneously, key traits and characteristics of the agreements are
similarly formulated. In light of this, dispute settlement mechanisms (state-to-state
dispute settlement proceedings, investor-state dispute settlement proceedings, and Joint
Committees) of the four FTAs also share commonalities. At the same time, new ideas
and suggestions are explored in the four FTAs. While issues and disputes under the four
FTAs have arguably not been ripe for the constitution of dispute settlement proceedings
under the FTAs at the moment, sooner or later they are likely to end up in the dockets
of the respective proceedings. The key elements of the four FTAs’ dispute settlement
mechanisms are also adopted in other FTAs that the United States have concluded
afterwards including most recently the Trans-Pacic Partnership, since these elements
are reective of the general scheme of the United States in their FTAs. What remains to
be seen is how the general scheme of dispute settlement proceedings can be applied and
implemented in actual settings when the FTAs produce increasing numbers of disputes
in the future. In particular, marked disparity in human and nancial resources between
the United States and the four FTA’s parties may bring about disparate impacts and
consequences among contracting parties. Continued attention needs to be paid to the
development concerning implementation of the four FTAs, in particular their dispute
settlement proceedings.
CONTENTS
i. introDuction...............................................................................................489
ii. state-to-state Dispute settlement mechanism.......................................490
iii. investor state arbitration mechanism...................................................493
iv. Joint committees.......................................................................................497
v. assessment anD challenges......................................................................499
Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies 5 (2016), DOI: 10.1515/bjals-2016-0017
© 2016 Jaemin Lee, published by De Gruyter Open.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
* Professor of Law, School of Law, Seoul National University. Ph.D., LL.M., LL.B. (Seoul
National Univ.); LL.M. (Georgetown Univ.); J.D. (Boston College). The author can be
reached via e-mail at jaemin@snu.ac.kr.
5 Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies (2016)
A. Overall Assessment of the Dispute Settlement Mechanisms of the
Four U.S. Free Trade Agreements................................................499
B. Peculiar Challenges for the Four Free Trade Agreements............500
1. Burden from Legal Aspects......................................................501
2. Burden from Logistical Aspects..............................................502
VI. concluDing thoughts........................................................................503
488
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