Two recent decisions (nos. 14/2015 and 176/2015) delivered by the Greek Supreme Court analyze the issue of annulling arbitral decisions on public policy grounds. Since arbitration is particularly valuable for the contractual freedom, the general tendency is to restrict the powers of civil courts when they (re)consider and overturn an arbitral award, so that private…
A ruling issued on the 9th April 2015 by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) rejected a case brought by a Slovak bank and its shareholders against the 2012 PSI bond ‘haircut’ in Greece via the activation of Collective Action Clauses (CACs) (the award is available here). Poštová banka (a Slovakian bank)…
In modern treaties, a fair and equitable treatment standard (hereinafter “FaETS”) is to be provided to foreign investors and investments by the host state. In the past, the FaETS had been viewed as merely a sub-category of the international minimum standard. However, recent practice and international case law has started taking the view that the…
The mechanism for referring questions regarding a preliminary ruling allows the national judge to ask the ECJ for a clarification on a point of EC law. Art 234 EC Treaty, governing preliminary rulings before the ECJ, applies to national courts or tribunals ruling as courts of final appeal and it does not open up directly…
