5.1 Answering the central research questions

The introductory chapter of this book clearly established the central questions that this book has sought to address, specifically, the origination of the enforcement issue in the investment arbitration field and the question of how the enforcement problem in investor-state arbitration can be overcome in a practical way. This question requires a clear answer if awards granted by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) are to avoid a tsunami of non-compliance in the future. These hugely important questions invariably raise other important issues: for instance, if there is any proposal to overcome the enforcement issue, and whether they are implied or not. In addition, attention may also conceivably turn to the question of whether there are alternative recommendations to decrease the non-compliance of ICSID and non-ICSID awards within the current system in a practical way.