ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the design of the Investment Court System (ICS) with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body. It seeks to discuss to what extent the WTO Appellate Body can serve as a model for the ICS Appeal Tribunals. The chapter discusses whether an Appeal Tribunal is indeed warranted in addition to a permanent Tribunal of First Instance. It then focuses on some common arguments for establishing an appeal facility in international investment law and argues that they only carry weight in conjunction with an ad-hoc first instance. The ICS Appeal Tribunals adopts several design features that have been instrumental to the WTO Appellate Body's legitimacy and success. These include, most prominently, the existence of permanent judges, the random composition of individual divisions and the introduction of strict standards of professional incompatibility. Both the WTO and the ICS have similar standards regarding the incompatibility of serving as member of the appellate body and engaging in other professional activities.
