A/HRC/30/44 or strengthen capacities to achieve national objectives and meet the needs of their constituencies. The system that has evolved under finance-led globalization has led to a multiplicity of rules and regulations on international trade and investment that tend to excessively constrain national policy options. At the same time it lacks an effective multilateral framework of rules and institutions for ensuring international financial stability and for overseeing extra-territorial fiscal matters. Within this imperfect system, policymakers in developed countries are aiming to tackle a series of interrelated macroeconomic and structural challenges, while those from developing countries are trying to consolidate recent gains and enter a new phase of inclusive development. I t is therefore more important than ever before for national policy space to be made a central issue on the global development agenda. UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration, General Assembly resolution 68/109 – excerpts Article 1. Scope of application Applicability of the Rules 1. The UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (“Rules on Transparency”) shall apply to investor-State arbitration initiated under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules pursuant to a treaty providing for the protection of investments or investors (“treaty”)* concluded on or after 1 April 2014 unless the Parties to the treaty** have agreed otherwise. 2. In investor-State arbitrations initiated under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules pursuant to a treaty concluded before 1 April 2014, these Rules shall apply only when: (a) The parties to an arbitration (the “disputing parties”) agree to their application in respect of that arbitration; or (b) The Parties to the treaty or, in the case of a multilateral treaty, the State of the claimant and the respondent State, have agreed after 1 April 2014 to their application. Application of the Rules 3. In any arbitration in which the Rules on Transparency apply pursuant to a treaty or to an agreement by the Parties to that treaty: (a) The disputing parties may not derogate from these Rules, by agreement or otherwise, unless permitted to do so by the treaty; (b) The arbitral tribunal shall have the power, besides its discretionary authority under certain provisions of these Rules, to adapt the requirements of any specific provision of these Rules to the particular circumstances of the case, after consultation with the disputing parties, if such adaptation is necessary to conduct the arbitration in a practical manner and is consistent with the transparency objective of these Rules. Discretion and authority of the arbitral tribunal 4. Where the Rules on Transparency provide for the arbitral tribunal to exercise discretion, the arbitral tribunal in exercising such discretion shall take into account: (a) The public interest in transparency in treaty-based investor-State arbitration and in the particular arbitral proceedings; and 43