On The Space And Limitation Of Mediation Applicable To The Settlement Of Investment Disputes Of "The Belt And Road"

Under "the Belt and Road" Initiative,more and more Chinese enterprises have joined overseas investment in countries along "the Belt and Road",especially overseas direct investment activities,which has been accompanied by a significant increase in investment disputes between our private investors and the host countries along "the Belt and Road".In the sense of international investment law,investment disputes between investors and countries have certain particularities,and the ways in which such disputes are resolved and their procedures are more complex and varied,and if investment disputes between investors and host countries are not resolved in a timely manner,they may have a negative impact on the investment environment of the host country,in addition to which The involvement of the home country of the investor in the dispute in order to protect the security of its own overseas investors and their investments may eventually lead to disputes between private investors and the host Government as disputes between States and even from legal disputes to political disputes.Therefore,how to play the role of different types of investment dispute settlement methods based on the characteristics of the investment disputes involved in "the Belt and Road",and to solve these disputes in a timely and effective manner has become a major issue that has attracted much attention at present.And in various ways of settlement of investment disputes,such as international arbitration and domestic relief in the host country,whether the mediation method,which has always been neglected,can be applied to the settlement of such disputes,how to effectively play the function of mediation,has become the focus of this paper.The international investment disputes involved in "the Belt and Road" are complex and diverse,and the solution of investment disputes is complex.Judging from the bilateral investment protection agreements signed by China and the countries along "the Belt and Road",there are agreements that do not provide for dispute settlement between investors and the host country;some agreements only provide that disputes relating to the amount of compensation agreements are settled by arbitration;and that some agreements provide for the use of the "fork in the road clause" for selection after friendly consultations.The unclear or inconsistent realistic choices of States with respect to the settlement of investment disputes make it very difficult to resolve disputes after investment disputes have occurred.Even if the methods for resolving such investor-state investment disputes are identified,such as recourse to international arbitration,litigation and other common dispute resolution methods,they may not be able to resolve investor-state investment disputes well because of their own characteristics,so in recent years,some common investment dispute resolution methods and related mechanisms have been criticized and criticized.It is also for this reason that,in the face of complex "the Belt and Road" investment disputes,these commonly used dispute resolution alone may not adequately respond to the actual need for effective dispute resolution."The Belt and Road" initiative,a top-level design of China-led economic and trade cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region,is the result of many developing countries promoting cross-regional cooperation between the Asian region and Asia and Europe.It upholds the concept of "discussing,building and sharing",with particular emphasis on friendly and cooperative relations among countries.In this context,mediation,as one of the ways to resolve diversified investment disputes,is highly compatible with the spirit of "the Belt and Road" initiative because of its flexibility in application and the prospect of continuing to maintain friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties to the dispute while resolving disputes.In fact,in recent years,many countries and regions,some important international organizations have begun to reform and improve their mediation rules,which also shows to a certain extent that the international community has begun to pay close attention to and improve the traditional dispute resolution method of mediation,with a view to reactivating its role in actively playing the debate between international economic,trade and investment activities.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to analyze the application space and limitation of mediation to the settlement of "the Belt and Road" investment disputes,and then put forward the concrete ideas and suggestions for making full use of mediation to resolve related disputes.Based on the research methods of normative analysis and comparative analysis,the author points out that on the basis of combing the contents of the existing main mediation rules and their development and evolution,it is pointed out that under the "the Belt and Road" initiative,it is feasible to use mediation to solve the "the Belt and Road" international Investment Disputes: The complexity of investment disputes makes the application of pluralistic approaches,including mediation,very important;second,the practice of using arbitration to resolve "the Belt and Road" Investment disputes shows that international arbitration in mainstream investment dispute settlement methods has attracted much criticism and resistance due to the existence of a number of birth defects and acquired inadequacies.Unable to meet the realistic needs for the effective resolution of investment disputes;Third,from the existing main mediation rules of the content design,the latest improvement and development,as well as the degree of acceptance,its "the Belt and Road" investment dispute settlement there is a certain scope of application.Nevertheless,these existing mediation rules still have obvious limitations,mainly manifested in such things as the actual selection of the countries concerned in BIT practice,the limited scope of application of the rules themselves,and the lack of implementation of mediation agreements.The existence of these problems will have a negative impact on the application of mediation to the settlement of "the Belt and Road" investment disputes,so it is necessary to improve the existing conciliation rules and pay attention to the combination of multiple dispute resolution methods.In order to give full play to the positive role of mediation in the settlement of "the Belt and Road" investment disputes.The author puts forward the personal preliminary idea: first of all,at the present stage,it is mainly to improve the existing mediation mechanism and attach importance to solving "the Belt and Road" investment dispute by relying on the existing mediation mechanism.Secondly,after the conditions are ripe in the future,consideration will be given to the construction of a new "the Belt and Road" investment dispute mediation Centre,while the main options for the construction of a new mediation centre are: the construction of a new "the Belt and Road"international mediation Centre for Investment Disputes based on multilateral treaties,and the establishment of specialized services under well-known arbitration“the Belt and Road "mediation Centre for Investment disputes.