Research Method

The projects draws from recent advances in computer technology to reveal hitherto undiscovered structures running through international economic law. In particular, this project will use state-of-the-art text-as-data analytics and network analysis to investigate patterns of convergence and divergence in international trade and investment law. Our research will focus on:

• the universe of free trade and investment protection agreements and
• the network of investment awards and trade panel/Appellate Body reports

Revealing the structures of convergence and divergence in both areas of international law will help policy-makers and negotiators, in particular in developing countries, to better understand the current structures of international economic law and to help evaluate its need for reform.

State-of-the-art text-as-data

Text-as-data approaches are derived from natural language processing and information retrieval. On one end of the spectrum, text as data may simply denote the use of computers to do what humans used to do: count terms following a human-made coding scheme. This automation of information retrieval drastically reduces the cost of doing research. Large bodies of texts can be assessed in minutes or even seconds. Moreover, once a code retrieving legal information is written, it can be easily adjusted to capture different elements or extended for application to new contexts. Its versatility and low costs thus replace, at least to some extent, the traditional human coder. On the other end of the spectrum, text as data also comprises the use of statistical tools to extract information without human supervision. Having computers run coding schemes accelerates traditional empirical research, but does not revolutionize it. 

Social Network Analysis

Social network analysis is only now beginning to be applied to the study of law more generally. A small but growing number of academics have begun to study networks of legal operators, cases, statutes, and articles to describe those networks and examine their evolution and possible effects on doctrine. Our project examines case-specific tribunals as “nodes” and investigates outward and inward citations as “ties”. The information will allow us to determine the properties of the investment case law network: What is the “density” of this network, and how “centralized” is it? Are some cases more central in the network than others? Is there an evolution in the number of ties, structure/centrality of the network itself, or centrality of the specific nodes within the network? 

Publications

• Alschner, Wolfgang, and Dmitriy Skougarevskiy. “The New Gold Standard? Empirically Situating the TPP in the Investment Treaty Universe.” Journal of World Investment & Trade 17 (2015): 339–73.

• Alschner, Wolfgang, and Dmitriy Skougarevskiy. “Can Robots Write Treaties? Using Recurrent Neural Networks to Draft International Investment Agreements.” In JURIX: Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, edited by Floris Bex and Serena Villata, 119–114. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2016.

• Alschner, Wolfgang, and Dmitriy Skougarevskiy. “Mapping the Universe of International Investment Agreements.” Journal of International Economic Law 19, no. 3 (2016): 561–88.

• Alschner, Wolfgang, and Dmitriy Skougarevskiy. “Rule-Takers or Rule-Makers? A New Look at African Bilateral Investment Treaty Practice.” Transnational Dispute Management 4 (2016).

• Alschner, Wolfgang, and Dmitriy Skougarevskiy. “Convergence and Divergence in the Investment Treaty Universe - Scoping the Potential for Multilateral Consolidation.” Trade, Law & Development 8, no. 2 (2016): 152–83.

• Alschner, Wolfgang. “The Impact of Investment Arbitration on Investment Treaty Design: Myth versus Reality.” Yale Journal of International Law 42, no. 1 (2017): 1–66.

• Alschner, Wolfgang, Joost Pauwelyn, and Sergio Puig. “The Data-Driven Future of International Economic Law.” Journal of International Economic Law 20, no. 2 (2017.): 217–31.

• Brummer, Chris, and Joost Pauwelyn, eds. “Special JIEL Issue: New Frontiers in Empirical Legal Research: Text-as-Data and Network Analysis of International Economic Law.” Jounal of International Economic Law 20, no. 2 (2017).

• Morin, Jean-Frédéric, Joost Pauwelyn, and James Hollway. “The Trade Regime as a Complex and Adaptive System: Exploration and Exploitation of Environmental Norms in Trade Agreements.” Journal of International Economic Law 20 (2017): 365–90. 

• Alschner, Wolfgang. “Locked in Language: Historical Sociology and the Path Dependency of Investment Treaty Design.” In Research Handbook on the Sociology of International Law, edited by Moshe Hirsch and Andrew Lang, 347–68. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2018.

• Pauwelyn, Joost, and Weiwei Zhang. “Busier than Ever? A Data-Driven Assessment and Forecast of WTO Caseload.” Journal of International Economic Law 21, no. 3 (2018): 461–87.

• Pauwelyn, Joost, and Krzysztof J. Pelc. “Who Writes the Rulings of the World Trade Organization? A Critical Assessment of the Role of the Secretariat in WTO Dispute Settlement,” 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3458872.

• Alschner, Wolfgang. “Ensuring Correctness or Promoting Consistency? Tracking Policy Priorities in Investment Arbitration through Large-Scale Citation Analysis.” In (Forthcoming) Empirical Perspectives on Investment Arbitration, edited by Daniel Behn, Ole Kristian Fauchald, and Malcolm Langford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
  

Presentations

• Zhang, Weiwei. “EconLawData: Let the Data Speak for Itself.” Presented at the CTEI, Geneva, Switzerland, September 27, 2017.

• Pauwelyn, Joost. “Rules Behind the Headlines: Using Data to Navigate the Unseen Landscape of International Economic Law.” Presented at the The WTO Public Forum, Geneva, Switzerland, September 27, 2017.

• Punyakumpol, Chanya. “The Use of Precedent as a Driver of Change: An Empirical Look and the Interplay between Tribunals and States.” Presented at the CTEI - The Geneva International Economic Law Sessions, Geneva, Switzerland, December 14, 2019.

• Pauwelyn, Joost. “Who Writes the Rulings of the World Trade Organization? A Critical Assessment of the Role of the Secretariat in WTO Dispute Settlement.” Presented at the IELAP Seminar, King’s College London, 2020.