https://insight.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra/vol113/iss4/14
Andrea K. Bjorklund, publishing in the Penn State Law Review, examines how investment arbitration shifted from a private dispute mechanism into a global governance tool. She dissects the creeping expansion of arbitral authority, arguing that the system now effectively regulates public policy rather than simply resolving narrow commercial breaches. The article delivers a precise legal diagnosis of how tribunals assume quasi-judicial power, yet it remains heavily focused on procedural law rather than political economy. This analysis serves future trade-law practitioners by revealing exactly how initial treaty consent metastasizes into broad regulatory constraints. The legal breakdown directly affirms the thesis by showing how pre-committed arbitration mechanisms govern state behavior from the outside.