Wars overflow the dikes of legal tolerance. That is why today, more than ever, it is necessary to recover arbitration as an instrument of pacification of inter-state conflicts and, thus, face the new challenges that the 21st century demands of us and which we thought had been completely banished. A historical review of arbitration from the Egyptians to the present day, going through its different historical phases until its boost at the beginning of the 20th century, shows us that arbitration has its roots as a tool for peace and proves its vigour in the face of more adverse conditions than those we are facing today. Moreover, globalisation requires that in inter-state relations the investor be protected against events of all kinds. The BITs and other investment treaties contain “war clauses” with different degrees and levels, which are nothing more than agreements that act with different intensity. They thus weave a complex web, a dodecahedron in which it is necessary to clarify how these clauses interact with the rest of the treaty and with the exceptions provided by customary international law.
Iurgium [previously Spain Arbitration Review]