Common Contracts
1 similar CPTPP contracts
Segmentation and Side Letters: New Zealand’s Experience with ISDS in the CPTPPCPTPP • January 14th, 2020
This paper explores New Zealand’s shift from a bilateral approach to international investment agreements to a multilateral approach, then back to a form of bilateralism within the multilateral CPTPP. The side letters can be characterised as subsequent agreements which modify a multilateral agreement between some of the parties, under art 41 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. While this paper concludes that the mechanism is legally valid, the practical effectiveness is undermined by New Zealand’s overlapping previous agreements, the possibility of treaty shopping and the prospects of further countries acceding to the CPTPP.
