BIT

BIT, Expropriation, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Fair market value, ICSID Convention, International Court of Justice, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Permanent Court of International Justice

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and Oleg Temnikov I. Foreword At the end of 2013, the Financial Times reported that a referendum will be held in Berlin on the question whether the State shall take over power supply from the hands of Vattenfall. We use this as an occasion to examine the legal implications in the field of investment arbitration…

Arbitration Agreements, Argentina, BIT, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Treaty, U.S. Supreme Court

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Introduction In BG Group v. Republic Argentina, a divided U.S. Supreme Court (“the Court”) continued to hold that arbitrators are the proper decision makers in gateway questions of arbitrability, not courts. The issue here concerned whether or not the local litigation requirement in the U.K-Argentina BIT was a procedural prerequisite to investor-state arbitration, or a…

Arbitration, BIT, Human Rights, Labour Law

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment
Linklaters

The recent Bangladesh factory disaster has brought the plight of labourers in developing countries to the forefront in the international arena. Reforms in the labour legislations in Bangladesh have been demanded, which could lead to the implementation of stricter labour standards in the country. This could possibly lead to investment arbitration claims against Bangladesh, if…

BIT, ICSID Convention, Investment protection, Trans-Pacific Partnership

(Clyde & Co. LLP)/ /2 Comments
Clyde & Co.

By Beth Cubitt and Tom French The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) – a multi-lateral agreement proposed between a number of countries, currently including Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Vietnam (although it is hoped to be an open platform welcoming other countries to participate) – is currently the subject of…

BIT, Book Review, NAFTA

(Pepperdine University School of Law)/ /1 Comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

In recent years, Oxford University Press has devoted considerable effort to enhancing its transnational law list. In doing so, it has added several titles addressing international arbitration and investor-State topics. Among its more recent offerings is Commentaries on Selected Model Investment Treaties (hereinafter “Commentaries”) edited by Dr. Chester Brown. Commentaries is substantial. It comprises 895…

Arbitrability, Arbitral seat, Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Argentina, BIT, Investment Arbitration, Investor, SCOTUS, Transparency in investment arbitrations, Treaty, U.S. Supreme Court, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, vacatur

(DLA Piper) and (Law Offices of Kiran N Gore PLLC; The George Washington University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

It has been over two years since the DC Circuit Court of Appeals (“Circuit Court”) vacated an award in a bilateral investment treaty arbitration (BG Group PLC v. Republic of Argentina (UNCITRAL)) concluding that the panel did not have authority to adjudicate the dispute because the claimant had not satisfied a pre-arbitration requirement, namely, litigating…

BIT, Europe, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

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Last year at about the same period, I reported on two major events that had been taking place in the world of Intra- and Extra-EU BITs, the Regulation establishing transitional arrangements for bilateral investments agreements between Member States and Third Countries, on the one hand, and the Electrabel decision, on the other. See blog of…

BIT, European Law, European Union, Investment Arbitration

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Investment arbitration under investment treaties between EU member states is a hot topic, in particular given the EU Commission’s strong views on the subject: As previously discussed here, the Commission has intervened in arbitrations in support of the position that the arbitral tribunal lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute. One such matter was Eureko v….

BIT, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules

(LAWIN)/ /1 Comment

and Rapolas Kasparavičius, LAWIN An abundant number of agreements have been and will be concluded between states and investors operating under the bilateral investment regime and even a larger number of negotiations will fail before reaching the final stage of signature. An investor may spend large sums of money with the aim of concluding an…

BIT, Damages, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investor

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Foreword For centuries people have searched for the formula which may give them more gold. It may turn out that some investors have found it. As it will be explained, indirect investments through a chain of intermediary companies hides the risk of multiplication of claims and double recovery. But not according to the tribunal in…

BIT, Eastern Europe, Investment Arbitration, Uncategorized

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Herbert Smith Freehills

The recent Rompetrol Group NV v Romania award provides rare guidance as to the requirements to be satisfied for a successful treaty claim arising from State conduct against individual company officers rather than the claimant investor itself. The investor claimed, inter alia, that the arrest, detention, criminal investigations and wire-tapping of its directors constituted State-sponsored…

BIT, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /1 Comment

and Oleg Temnikov I. Bureau Veritas v. Republic of Paraguay In the recent Further decision on objections to jurisdiction dated October 9, 2012 the tribunal in Bureau Veritas, Inspection, Valuation, Assessment and Control, BIVAC B.V. v. Paraguay (ICSID Case No. ARB/07/9) dismissed BIVAC’s claim based on violation of the fair and equitable standard by reasoning…

Applicable Law, BIT, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration

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In Part I it was argued that the proper law applicable in the investor-State disputes under Article 42 (1) ICSID Convention depends on the substantive grounds of the investor’s claim. In support of this, I have outlined three factual scenarios and types of claims with evidence from case law. Part I dealt with host State…

Applicable Law, BIT, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

Rationalizing applicable law in investor-State disputes in absence of express choice of law under Article 42 (1) of ICSID Convention PART I Article 42 of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention) determines the powers of an arbitral tribunal constituted under the ICSID Convention as…

BIT, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration

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and Oleg Temnikov There is a Taoist fable of the three stupid men who were traveling together from one village to the next. They rested for the night under a banyan tree. In the morning, it turned out that the travelers have forgotten whose shoes are whose. Because none of the three men was able…

BIT, Consent, Damages, Dispute, Investment Arbitration, Uncategorized

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

On February 6, 2013, Achmea (a Dutch insurer, better known by its former name, Eureko) initiated UNCITRAL arbitration proceedings against the Slovak Republic on the basis of the Agreement on encouragement and reciprocal protection of investments between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (the “Netherlands-Slovakia BIT“) [The Agreement on…

BIT, ICSID Convention, International Law, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Jurisdiction, Treaty Shopping

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /1 Comment

Akbar the Great once drew with his royal hand a line in the sand. He then told his wise men that if they wanted to keep their jobs, they must invent a way to make the line shorter without touching any part of it. Wise man after wise man approached the line and stood in…

Africa, BIT, Foreign Investment Law, Investment, Investment agreements

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In recent years, African states have taken several initiatives to increase the protection of and legal security offered to foreign investors. However, a lot of work is unfinished and some of it is even frustrated. Some examples. Bilateral Investment Treaties Bilateral investment treaties (‘BITs’) are critical to foreign investors considering investing in Africa. Such BITs…

BIT, ICSID Convention, Umbrella clause

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by Inna Uchkunova and Oleg Temnikov Foreword “The whole exercise was great fun and for me, I was then 26 years old, a great eye-opener – I learned a lot.” – Sir Elihu Lauterpacht on his advice given to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in 1954, on which occasion it emerged the idea that “any contract…

Arbitration, BIT, Damages, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, International Law, Latin America, Manifest disregard of the law

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Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

By Tai-Heng Cheng* & Lucas Bento** Introduction On October 5th, 2012, a split ICSID tribunal determined that the Republic of Ecuador had breached the US-Ecuador bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”), and awarded damages of US$1.77 billion (US$2.3 billion with interest applied), reportedly the largest award ever to have been issued by an ICSID tribunal. This award…

BIT, Europe, European Law, European Union

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Two major events have taken place recently regarding the situation of Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between European Member States (“Intra-EU BITs”) and Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between an European Member State and a State not Member of the EU (“Extra-EU BITs”). The fate of these agreements was surrounded up until now by a veil of…

Attribution, BIT, ICSID Convention, Responsibility of States

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Whereas cases of direct expropriation have become relatively rare in international investment arbitration and claims of breach of fair and equitable treatment obligation or indirect expropriation are currently more common, the profile of respondents in ICSID arbitration proceedings has also changed. However, if both investors and host governments are likely to agree that States may…

Applicable Law, BIT, Damages, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, State entity, Treaty, Umbrella clause

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The problem of the law applicable to State contracts (i.e. contracts concluded between a foreign national and a State or a state entity) as well as the responsibility of States for the breach of these contracts has entertained the minds of scholars and practitioners ever since the famous PCIJ dictum in the 1929 Serbian Loans…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitrators, BIT, Costs in arbitral proceedings, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /15 Comments

“Research is formalized curiosity…” – Z. Hurston In what follows I have tried to gather information from publicly available sources regarding some of the questions which have troubled my mind lately. It is hoped that the results would be of interest to the readers. For me, this proved to be one of my most exciting…