Is the Court of Justice Opinion 1/17, in response to Belgium’s concerns over the compatibility of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) Tribunals and EU law, a further step towards investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform? Georg Adler and Ole Jensen, both at WilmerHale, consider the opinion and assess what it means for investment treaty arbitration practitioners.

On 30 October 2016, Canada, the EU and its Member States signed CETA. CETA is a so-called ‘new generation‘ free trade agreement, which means that, in addition to the classical provisions on the reduction of customs duties and of non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services, it contains rules relating to investment, public procurement, competition, intellectual property rights and sustainable development.