ICSID and the Right to Water: An Ingredient in the Stone Soup: 2013 ICSID Review Student Writing Competition

This article analyses the intersection between international investment rights and the international human right to water. Specifically, it focuses on four disputes at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) that concern water privatization contracts between foreign investors and developing countries. Although attention to these disputes tends to be offered through an anti-privatization lens, which inevitably pits the human right to water against foreign investors' rights, the author offers a different viewpoint. From the author’s angle, the ICSID arbitration institution is a vital participant in the facilitation of the protection of the human right to water.