PhD Thesis

Title: Fault as a Basis for Liability in Investment Treaty Arbitration

Expected Completion Date: 2026

PhD Supervisor: Zachary Douglas

This thesis re-evaluates the fundamental tenets of the regime of liability introduced by investment treaties, as the mainstream approach to liability is incoherent and produces injustice. As it stands, liability is determined based on different legal principles across tribunals, and the respective outcomes are fundamentally irreconcilable. Accordingly, the central question underpinning this research is: What is the principle of liability in investment treaty arbitration? To answer this inquiry, the project is structured around two main axes. First, the moral justification for the legal practice of investment treaty arbitration is examined to ascertain the form of justice that the regime seeks to achieve. Second, comparative law is relied upon to supply the fundamental elements of the cause of action in investment law. The objective is to elaborate a robust theoretical rationale to justify a particular legal principle forming the grounds of state liability, and therefore provide a principled, substantive foundation upon which the legal architecture of investment treaty arbitration can be constructed.
 

Profile

Fabiana is a PhD candidate and Teaching Assistant at the Geneva Graduate Institute, under the supervision of Prof. Zachary Douglas. Her PhD thesis is entitled ‘Fault as a Basis for Liability in Investment Treaty Arbitration’. She is a qualified lawyer in Brazil. She holds an LL.M from the University of Cambridge (Class 2021, First Class Honours), where she specialised in international law under the supervision of Prof. Jorge Viñuales. She was awarded the Kate Bertram Prize for First Class Results in LL.M Examination. In 2021, Fabiana joined the International Arbitration Team of Dechert LLP Paris. She was later awarded a PhD scholarship for academic excellence at the Geneva Graduate Institute. In 2024, she was a visiting PhD student at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, at the University of Cambridge. She is currently a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School, fully funded by the Doc.Mobility grant.
 

Research Interests

 

• International investment law and investment treaty arbitration
• The law of state responsibility
• Legal philosophy
• Private law
• Comparative law