Earlier today, an ad-hoc annulment committee at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) completely annulled a 2007 arbitral award that had been rendered in favour of US energy company, Sempra Energy International.
The striking development serves to nullify a US $128 Million (plus interest) award wherein a panel of ICSID arbitrators had found Argentina to have breached the terms of the US-Argentina bilateral investment treaty in the course of its handling of a financial crisis earlier this decade.
The ICSID’s review committee held that arbitrators had failed to apply an Article of the US-Argentina BIT upon which Argentina had pegged its defence of emergency or necessity.
I’ll be offering fuller reporting and analysis on the Decision in my Investment Arbitration Reporter news service, however I wanted to make readers of the KluwerArbitrationBlog aware that they can download a copy of today’s remarkable ICSID ruling here.
For background on the 2008 Sempra award see item #2 in this old newsletter.
Luke Eric Peterson
https://www.InvestmentArbitrationReporter.com
(Note: An earlier version of this post had identified the award as a 2008 award, however it was rendered in September 2007)
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