The investor as social healer? Reflections on restorative justice within a public interest reform scenario for ISDS

The legitimacy crisis that affects the Investor–State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is also rooted in its structural inability to deliver justice to investment-affected persons and communities. This article addresses this aspect by presenting restorative justice as a means of achieving a fairer balance between public and private interests in international investment law. Restorative justice is a holistic approach to justice promoting relational balance, care for harmed persons, and ultimately social reconciliation. As such, it could enhance the shift from ISDS’s capital-based logic towards public interest-oriented solutions responsive to investment-related harms. By adopting a descriptive approach, this article presents restorative justice within a public interest reform scenario for ISDS, outlining its features and the challenges associated with conceiving the investor as a social healer for investment-affected communities.