Moral Damages in Investment Arbitration: Punitive Damages in Compensatory Clothing?

This article examines moral damages in investment treaty arbitration. It traces the origins of the concept of moral damages in French law and general public international law and assesses how moral damages differ from other awards of monetary relief. It identifies two conceptions of moral damages and, using these conceptions, examines whether the tests applied and conclusions reached by investment treaty tribunals can be justified. It concludes that moral damages are unlikely to become a pervasive and uncontroversial feature of the investment treaty arbitration landscape.