The Place of Investment Awards and WTO Decisions in International Law: A Citation Analysis

Abstract

International economic law is increasingly applied—and in the process developed—by international judicial bodies. As cases from international economic fora are multiplying, the place of their growing jurisprudence in general international law is understudied. To some extent, citation analysis allows for an investigation of the influence of other international judicial bodies over these economic fora—and the authority the latter exhibited in return. Drawing from an original data set of ‘external citations’ to and from the main international fora (more than 3000 ‘external citations’ in a larger data set of 75,000 citations), this article examines the citations from and to investment awards and World Trade Organization decisions. It reveals that these fora differ strikingly in their own citation practice, both in terms of the number of external citations but also in terms of the topics prompting the citations. In addition, the analysis shows that these fora are still rarely cited by other international courts and tribunals, pointing to a limited (at least, explicit) influence in contemporary international dispute settlement.