Article 30 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: Application of the Successive Treaties Relating to the Same Subject-Matter

The proliferation of international investment agreements and of arbitral jurisdiction under those agreements increases the likelihood that normative conflicts may arise as between various treaties that protect the same investor from the action of the same State-party to the relevant treaty. While Article 30 of the 1969 Vienna Convention is a provision of a key importance here, the arbitral practice has not so far directly resolved the issue of normative conflict between various investment treaties. While the jurisdiction of investment arbitration tribunals is generally not restricted by the litis pendens rule, the same treaty may well be raised and have to be dealt with in different arbitration proceedings. This contribution engages the range of issues arising out of the possibility of such normative conflicts, such as the criteria for identifying whether treaties are in conflict, the range of normative conflicts and the availability of arbitral jurisdiction to resolve them.