ABSTRACT
This chapter examines various aspects of China’s position on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and explains China is undecided on a path of reform to pursue and is looking at various options. The United States is the first country in the world to respond to the ISDS legitimacy crisis and has taken an incremental approach from the very beginning. In addition to ISDS reform in terms of arbitration, mediation has been strongly proposed to resolve investment disputes on a voluntary basis, serving as an alternative to arbitration in recent years. In response to the legitimacy crisis of investment arbitration, mediation is proposed and advocated by scholars and experts as an alternative to resolving investor-state disputes. Mediation can be used at any stage of the arbitration proceedings, including the case filing stage, pre-hearing stage, hearing stage, and even after the hearing but before the award announcement stage.
