Investment Arbitration

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration, Multiple parties, SCC Rules, Security for Costs

(Climate Change Counsel)/ /Leave a comment

As part of its centenary celebrations in January 2017, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (“SCC”) will be launching updated rules. Drafts of the revised SCC Arbitration Rules and Rules for Expedited Arbitrations are now available on the SCC website. A public hearing was held in Stockholm on June 9 to discuss the…

Admissibility, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /2 Comments

The recently published Philipp Morris v Australia award concerning Australia’s plain packaging of cigarettes legislation contains important indications regarding the conditions for the timely structuring of investments in order to be able to initiate investment arbitration proceedings. Background of the case Philip Morris International (PMI), a company incorporated in New York, produces cigarettes and owns…

ASEAN, Asia, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Trans-Pacific Partnership

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

The Asian economy is considered an engine of global economic growth, accounting for almost two-thirds of forecasted global economic growth for 2016.1)“Asia: Growth Remains Strong, Expected to Ease Only Modesty”, International Monetary Fund Survey Magazine, 3 May 2016, https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2016/CAR050316B.htm. Over the last decade, the flows of foreign investment into and out of Asia have consistently…

Dual Nationals, Investment Arbitration, Investor, ITA

(Covington and Burling LLP)/ /Leave a comment

YAI TALKS#, a new conversation series launched by the ITA Young Arbitrators Initiative (YAI) under the leadership of YAI chair Montserrat Manzano (Von Wobeser y Sierra, Mexico City) and vice chair Silvia Marchili (King & Spalding, Houston), kicked off on May 12 in Washington, D.C., with a debate on claims by dual nationals against countries…

Evidence, Expropriation, Investment Arbitration, Singapore, Singapore Court of Appeal, VCLT

(Clifford Chance Asia)/ /Leave a comment

On 4 April 2016, the Singapore Court of Appeal heard an appeal from Sanum Investments Limited (“Sanum“) (a Macanese company) against the High Court’s decision holding that an arbitral tribunal hearing Sanum’s claim against Laos for expropriation under the China-Laos bilateral investment treaty (the “BIT“) had no jurisdiction. The issue of the tribunal’s jurisdiction turns…

France, Investment Arbitration, Uncategorized

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

No less than two years ago, in a series of related judgments (the NML Ltd et al. v the Republic of Argentina saga), the French Court of cassation gave greater protection to state immunity from execution.1)G. Travaini, State 1 – Investor 0: Recent French Decisions regarding Sovereign Immunity from Execution, Kluwer Arbitration Blog (27 August…

Appeal, Arbitral Tribunal, Investment Arbitration, ISDS, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

(Vinson & Elkins LLP)/ /1 Comment
ArbitralWomen

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the author’s law firm. On 12 November 2015, in the context of its negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and in a bid to address growing criticism…

BIT, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

The Government of the Republic of India has adopted a revised text of the former 2003 version of its Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Having entered into effect in December 2015, this text is intended to serve as a template for negotiations of India’s existing and future investment relations with countries around the world, including…

Amicus Curiae, Investment Arbitration, SIAC, Singapore, Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Third party funding

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) published a draft of new investment arbitration rules (the “draft SIAC IA Rules”) for public comment on 1 Feb 2016. They will be finalized on 27 May 2016. The draft SIAC IA Rules are a unique hybrid of modern commercial arbitration rules and specialist investment arbitration rules (e.g. the…

Arbitration, European Law, European Union, Investment Arbitration

(University of Cambridge)/ /Leave a comment

Juliane Kokott, Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), gave the 2016 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture on 26 February 2016 at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law. In her lecture, Ms. Kokott explored the conflicts between investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) and European Union (EU) law, as regards (1) conflicts between…

CETA, EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, European Union, ICSID Convention, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, ISDS, TPP, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

(General Editor, ICCA Publications; Amsterdam Center for International Law, University of Amsterdam)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

International investment law and investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) are at a historic juncture as the United States and the European Union (EU) have started to address the content and contours of the investment chapter in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in the latest negotiation round that took place in Brussels the last week…

Arbitration, Bankruptcy, Denial of justice, Hungary, Investment Arbitration

(Horvath & Partners DLA Piper, Hungary)/ /1 Comment

Introduction Dan Cake, a Portuguese company and one of the biggest biscuit producers in the world, invested in Hungary by acquiring a Hungarian company’s shares, later named as Danesita. Although Dan Cake had envisaged the expansion of its business to South East Europe too through this investment, after a couple of years, the plan failed…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /9 Comments

On 17 December 2015, the website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced that the Arbitral Tribunal in the Philip Morris Asia Limited (Hong Kong) v. The Commonwealth of Australia case has issued an Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of the case. While the award has not yet been published – pending the redaction…

Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP)/ /1 Comment

Investing internationally is all about taking risks. Risk-taking is essential to survive in today’s business world, where competitors, rivals, challengers, in all sectors of the economy, are growing like mushrooms. One needs to take risks to stand out from the rest. Foreign investors are at the center of our economies and appear as key actors…

Arbitration, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Latin America, Mexico, Peru

(Mayer Brown LLP)/ /Leave a comment

2015 has witnessed numerous interesting legal developments in the field of international arbitration in Latin America, although these have been wide-ranging in nature and have not always followed the same path. While some jurisdictions have taken legislative steps to introduce or consolidate pro-arbitration legislation in accordance with internationally accepted standards, others, perhaps influenced by negative…

BIT, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Customary international law, Expropriation, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Free Trade Agreements, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, Middle East, Treaty Interpretation, UAE, United States

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

This is Part II of a previous blog, discussing a recent Award dated 27 October 2015 rendered in ICSID Case No. ARB/11/33 – Adel A Hamadi Al Tamimi v. Sultanate of Oman and dismissing all claims against Oman (see Part I of the blog). By way of reminder, the claims brought in these ICSID proceedings…

Attribution, BIT, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Customary international law, Expropriation, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Free Trade Agreements, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, ILC Articles on State Responsibility, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Middle East, State Agency, UAE

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

By a Final Award dated 27 October 2015 (see ICSID Case No. ARB/11/33 – Adel A Hamadi Al Tamimi v. Sultanate of Oman), an international tribunal constituted under the International Convention for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), also commonly referred to as the Washington Convention, dismissed all claims brought by a US national against the…

Energy, Investment Arbitration, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /Leave a comment

by Nikos Lavranos, European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA) Whereas all the attention in the TTIP-debate has been focusing on the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions and, more recently, on the proposal of the European Commission for the creation of an investment court system (ICS), the proposed energy chapter – with potentially much…

Arbitration, Confidentiality, Confidentiality and Transparency, Investment Arbitration, Mauritius

(School of Law, King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

by Maria Laura Marceddu, School of Law, King’s College London Over the last years, as discussed on this blog (see here), there have been many interesting developments in the field of transparency in investor-State arbitration: the 2006 ICSID amendments, the 2013 UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (“the 2013 UNCITRAL Rules”) (see here), and…

Arbitral Tribunal, Hearings, Investment Arbitration, New York Convention, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transparency in investment arbitrations

(Trinity College Dublin, School of Law)/ /2 Comments

by Sonja Heppner, Trinity College Dublin, School of Law The text of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (‘TPP’) as agreed upon between the United States and Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam on 5 October 2015 provides for public arbitral hearings. The approach taken by the prospective signatories of…

Annulment, BIT, Ecuador, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration

(Flor & Hurtado)/ /Leave a comment

by Juan Carlos Herrera Q. Puente & Asociados In the middle of a short holiday, the Ecuadorian Government anxiously expected the Decision on Annulment issued by the Ad-hoc Committee regarding the investment arbitration initiated by Oxy. On November 2nd, 2015, the ICSID published on its web site the Decision and this event provoked a major…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Treaty, Treaty Interpretation

(London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Law)/ /5 Comments

by Velimir Živković, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Law Imagine that in the heyday of post-Cold War period State A concluded a number of bilateral investment treaties (”BITs”) with a number of countries. Due to a variety of factors, these lay dormant for decades as State A is not exposed to investor…

Ad hoc arbitration, BIT, Dispute Resolution, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, ISDS, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Uncategorized

(Australian National University)/ /Leave a comment

As Mariel Dimsey has observed, a key challenge posed by investment treaties is that – at the point of ratification – they expose States to arbitrations of ‘as-yet-unknown scope and against as-yet-unknown claimants’. Gus van Harten and Martin Loughlin argue that this feature differentiates investment disputes from those heard in other fora, transforming investment disputes into something akin to ‘domestic judicial review of state conduct’….

Arbitration, Bribery, Corruption, Croatia, Investment Arbitration

(Georgetown University Law Center)/ /3 Comments

In the landscape of international investment arbitration the allegations of corruption have become more and more common. Confronted with investor’s claims before an arbitral tribunal, host states employ all possible legal arguments available to avoid potential liability and the subsequent payment of compensation. Investor’s corrupt acts have emerged as a potentially viable state defense in…