Originally from Revolution in the International Rule of Law: Essays in Honor of Don Wallace, Jr.

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The UNCITRAL Transparency Rules 2013 are a significant step in

the dynamic development of international economic law. Transparency
in treaty-based investor-State arbitration denotes a potential conflict of
economic and political interests and a concept to resolve it. On one hand,
there is the foreign private investor's interest in a swift, effective, and
confidential resolution of a dispute relating to its investment (and the
host State that is Party to the investment treaty, may or may not share
this interest). On the other hand, political or public interests involved in
the investment project might be better protected through more
transparency of such arbitral proceedings. The following comments on
the UNCITRAL draft Transparency Rules 2013 are written in honour of
my old friend Don Wallace. Don's successful career as a law professor,
legal author, practicing arbitrator, and chairman of the International Law
Institute ("ILI") as well as the remarkable and lasting success of the ILI
in international legal research and education mirror the vital role that law
plays in fostering international cooperation and prosperity. I came to
know Don in 1970 in Washington, D.C., when he became chairman of
the ILI, at that time still named the "Institute for International and
Foreign Trade Law" by its founder, Professor Heinrich Kronstein. In
1977, when I came again to Georgetown University Law Center as the
first Heinrich Kronstein Visiting Professor, I could notice the remarkable
progress the ILI in the meantime had made, and since then it has been a
success story for both Don and the ILI. My best wishes for Don: ad
multos annos!