International Law Talk is a series of podcasts through which Wolters Kluwer provides the latest news and industry insights from thought leaders and experts in the fields of International Arbitration, IP Law, International Tax Law, and Competition Law. Here at Kluwer Arbitration Blog, we highlight the podcasts focused on international arbitration. In this latest episode,…

Readers with antennas tuned to the happenings of the reform process for investor-State dispute settlement at UNCITRAL will know that the topics of damages and causation are on the agenda.  Indeed, at the last sessional meeting of Working Group III, draft provisions on damages and causation were discussed.  These provisions might find their way into…

On June 7, 2023, an ICC tribunal issued an award that will redefine risk allocation in the construction industry. The arbitration was initiated by Refinería de Cartagena S.A.S. (“Reficar”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecopetrol S.A., which is in turn owned by the Republic of Colombia, against Chicago Bridge & Iron Company NV., CB&I UK…

The 35th Annual ITA Workshop on “Remedies in International Arbitration: Wielding Arbitral Power for Effective Redress” took place in Austin, Texas from 15 to 16 June 2023. Co-chaired by Dr. Diane A. Desierto (Professor, University of Notre Dame Law School), Rachael D. Kent (Partner, WilmerHale, Washington, D.C.), and Thomas Voisin (Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &…

On 29-30 September 2022, the second annual Balkan Arbitration Conference (“BAC 22”) – was held in Tirana, Albania. The Conference is the first arbitration conference for the Balkan region as a whole. Its purpose is to provide a forum to help build cooperation and develop the use and practice of arbitration in the Balkan region….

Arbitral tribunals are often faced with questions concerning the interpretation and enforcement of liquidated damages clauses; in such cases, the law governing the contract can significantly affect what damages can be claimed, the standard for proving such damages, and consequently the outcome of the dispute. This blog post examines the differences between English law and…

2021 was a record-breaking year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The total global deal value amounted to USD 5.9 trillion, an increase of 64% compared to 2020 and the highest ever recorded, driven by high valuations and fuelled by access to cheap financing. The market was strong across corporate and financial buyers. The year saw…

The first edition of the World Arbitration Update (WAU) founded by Ian Laird (Crowell) and Jose Antonio Rivas (Xtrategy) took place on-line from October 11 to October 15, 2021, hosting 15 panels with over 4,000 registrations and 1,476 attendees. The WAU addressed key and novel topics of investment and international commercial arbitration, and public international law in…

On 30 June and 1 July 2021, the Tenth Investment Arbitration Forum took place in form of a webinar jointly organized by Dr. Herfried Wöss of Wöss & Partners and Prof. Dr. Guillermo Estrada Adán of the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, UNAM. The topic of this year’s forum was “The Second Mexican Energy Reform” and the…

The views of the party-appointed experts in an arbitration may differ substantially, making it difficult for tribunals to navigate within the multiple areas of disagreement. Even if the disagreed issues can be isolated (e.g. via means of the joint expert report), understanding the sensitivity of the amount claimed to the individual assumptions may not be…

The onset of COVID-19 has brought significant volatility to financial markets and increased uncertainty for investors and businesses of all classes. In the arena of international arbitration, where stakes can be in the multibillions, the ability to assess damages despite this uncertainty is of paramount importance. This post will address some insights from the webinar…

Following on the first day of Washington Arbitration Week (WAW), covered in detail here, later programming of WAW did not shy away from further in-depth discussions. This post highlights programming that dug into energy and the environment, arbitration from the client’s perspective, infrastructure disputes during the pandemic, and last but not least, damages valuation.  …

US energy company TECO Guatemala Holdings, LLC (“TECO”) was awarded additional damages in a resubmitted ICSID claim against the Republic of Guatemala under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (“DR-CAFTA”).1) TECO Guatemala Holdings, LLC v. Republic of Guatemala (ICSID Case No. ARB/10/23), Award, 13 May 2020. On 13 May 2020, the resubmission Tribunal…

Introduction In 2019, we witnessed a number of interesting developments in the field of investment arbitration in Latin America. While some of them were in line with expectations, some jurisdictions did deviate from their usual or expected approach to ISDS and surprised us in positive, but also in negative ways. Our authors did a tremendous…

This post analyses a series of ICSID arbitration awards against Venezuela since 2014 to understand a pressing concern in many investment arbitrations today: how to deal with the risk of expropriation in quantum calculations. Getting this right is critical to ensure that host states do not benefit from their own wrongful conduct and that investors…

Recently published arbitral awards provide insight into Tribunals’ reasoning when the quantum of a claim is challenged for being too uncertain or speculative. Typically, Claimants will not only claim costs incurred up to the date of the breach or expropriation, but they will also claim compensation for future profits in a but-for scenario. However, a…

“Developing arbitration into a matured system of adjudication that can fully compete with litigation may create tension with its promise of providing a quick, fair, and flexible way to resolve a dispute. … Some years ago, Johnny Veeder posed the question, “whose arbitration is this anyway?”  Perhaps the time has now come for the arbitration…

Brumadinho Dam’s Rupture1)The dam collapse happened on 25 January 2019.. On the first day, the fire department, responsible for the rescues, estimated that the number of victims was about 200. Ten days after the disaster, the death toll was confirmed to be 134, while 199 were still missing. Trigger Warning: At this link one can…

Despite the variety of investment treaty disputes involving assets in the Post-Soviet jurisdictions in Central Asia, assessment of damages in each particular case is often heavily debated by the parties, experts and tribunals. In many instances, selecting an appropriate valuation method is the cornerstone of the tribunal’s decision-making on damages. This article provides an overview…

On 26 May 2018, the Ninth Investment Arbitration Forum took place at the Juridicum of the University of Vienna jointly organized by Prof. Irmgard Marboe of the University of Vienna, Adriana San Román and Herfried Wöss of Wöss & Partners and ICC Austria. The topic of this year’s forum was “Valuation of Damages in Changing…

The afternoon session of the second day of the ICCA Sydney 2018 Conference on “New Voices” was moderated by Monty Taylor and had the insightful contributions of Jawad Ahmad, Lucas Bastin, Samantha Lord Hill and Solomon Ebere. Monty Taylor opened the session by noting that not only was this a new initiative for ICCA, but…

Mr Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences, and the author of the bestselling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”. His book focuses on behavioural science, and explains how cognitive biases fool us into making suboptimal decisions. In December 2017, PwC updated its International Arbitration damages research (“PwC Research”). It reviewed multiple international…

Introduction Following the denial by Italian authorities to grant Rockhopper Exploration PLC (a UK upstream company; hereafter, RKH) the production concession for an oil and gas field, in May 2017, the company lodged (jointly with its Italian subsidiary, hereafter collectively referred to as the Claimant) a request for arbitration against Italy with the ICSID by…

The latest decision in Bear Creek Mining Corp v Republic of Peru (ICSID Case No. ARB/14/21) presents some interesting takeaways for international investment arbitration case law.  This note briefly introduces the case’s relevant facts before addressing the reasoning of the Tribunal in relation to (i) illegality as a bar to investment protection, (ii) indirect expropriation,…