Investor

Fair and Equitable Treatment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Legitimate Expectations

(University of Vienna, Faculty of Law, Section for International Law and International Relations )/ /2 Comments

It comes as no surprise to those familiar with investment treaty law to see the concept of legitimate expectations continuously refined by case law. One of the facets of legitimate expectations, which is most often the topic of intensive debate in the investment treaty arbitration arena, is the analysis of the extent to which representations…

Arbitration, Energy, Energy Charter Treaty, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Italy, Russia

(Stockholm University)/ /Leave a comment

No doubt that the last three years have been quite busy for the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and for the Energy Charter Conference. The number of investor-state arbitration cases under Article 26 of the ECT doubled in this time span, going from thirty known cases to sixty-eight (as reported on the website of the Energy…

Arbitral Award, Ecuador, Investor, Oil & Gas, Permanent Court of Arbitration

(Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /1 Comment

The controversial dispute between the Ecuadorian government and the multinational corporation Chevron arose from the operations undertaken by Texpet –a subsidiary of Texaco at that time- on the country’s Amazon region during the eighties. Texpet was the operator undertaking the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in association with Petroecuador, formerly CEPE, the state-owned oil company…

Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investor

(Uppsala University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Over the past few years, the business community has discovered a new form of investment: this new type of capital formation is broadly known as investment in cryptocurrencies. The capital interest in these investments involves large financial institutions such as investment banks, rating services, assets management and consultancy agencies. According to the CoinDesk, the short…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Mediation

(Washington and Lee University School of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The University of Virginia’s Spring 2014 symposium focused on the topic of international development. One panel focused on the role of international politics in the context of international dispute settlement. With the mandate to examine elements related to both politics and development, I was asked to explore outcomes in investment treaty arbitration (ITA) as a…

BIT, CETA, Germany, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment protection, Investor, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

(General Editor, ICCA Publications; Amsterdam Center for International Law, University of Amsterdam)/ /2 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

Germany’s position on international investment law and investor-State arbitration is attracting increasing attention since the signing of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in September 2014 has been deferred, inter alia, because of opposition from Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy. Is Germany, the country that not only has…

BIT, Energy Charter Treaty, European Commission, European Law, European Union, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, ISDS

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /1 Comment

The Inaugural Conference of the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA) took place on Friday, 23 January 2015, in the Senate House of the Queen Mary University of London. 160 participants ranging from academics, arbitrators, arbitration institutions, companies, lawyers to NGOs reviewed a full day long the EU’s first 5 years of European…

BIT, European Court of Human Rights, Investment, Investment protection, Investor, Lis Pendens

(Linklaters)/ /Leave a comment

Although a bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”) arbitration and an application made before the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) could, at first glance, present opposite objectives, investors alleging a violation of their rights by a State may be inclined to make use of both remedies. As it will be elaborated below, the case law…

Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

(Baker Botts LLP)/ /Leave a comment

That was the assessment of Constantine Partasides QC, founding partner of Three Crowns, during his keynote address to the joint ITA-IEL conference. According to Mr. Partasides, there is a developing consensus among states that it is acceptable, and even virtuous, to challenge investor-state arbitration as an infringement on the rights of the public to pass…

ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law)/ /4 Comments

Paraphrasing Churchill, investment arbitration is the worst form of foreign investment dispute resolution, except for all the others. Post-Suez, governments are more civilised than to employ gunboat diplomacy for their own investors, and local courts are inherently partial. Achieving neutrality is the objective, and the only means: investment arbitration. This is the conventional wisdom for…

ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, International Court of Justice, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Treaty, Treaty Interpretation, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

/ /Leave a comment

One of the recurrent controversial issues in the investment arbitration practice relates to the application of the general rule of treaty interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in the interpretation of the provisions of the ICSID Convention and of investment treaties in general. Thomas Wälde in one of his last writings…

ICSID Arbitration, ILC Articles on State Responsibility, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Moral Damages

(University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

Let’s get this straight: When awarded to persons, including foreign investors, moral damages are compensatory in nature. They are not discretionary. They are not symbolic. They are not exemplary. They are not punitive. Rather, as the commentary to the ILC Draft Articles 36 and 37 on State Responsibility notes, “[c]ompensable personal injury encompasses not only…

BIT, Expropriation, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investor, Most Favoured Nation (MFN), Switzerland, Treaty, UNCITRAL Transparency Rules

(Homburger), (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan), and (Homburger )/ /Leave a comment
ArbitralWomen

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the authors’ respective law firms. While the press has been full lately of a reported backlash against investment arbitration, Switzerland has been making quiet progress in its efforts to update…

Australia, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(University of Sydney & Williams Trade Law)/ /Leave a comment

Indonesia is not the only Asia-Pacific nation that is reassessing investment treaties containing provisions on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS, especially arbitration). India announced a review in 2013, partly in the wake of the successful claim from an Australian mining investor, although the impact in practice is hard to discern or predict – especially under the…

Exhaustion of Local Remedies, International Law, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, NAFTA

(University of Michigan Law School)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

In its Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility, a unanimous tribunal in Apotex, Inc. v. United States dismissed a Canadian manufacturer’s claims that the United States judiciary had violated NAFTA by mis-applying a regulatory time period. Most of the reaction to Apotex has focused on the tribunal’s decision that the claimant’s activities in the United States—and…

ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Latin America

(Pinheiro Neto Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

Investment arbitration is a crucial and sensitive dispute-resolution method, notably because the treatment given to foreign investment matters may materially affect the economic and social realities of a country or region, particularly those in development. In the last decade, however, as already reported and addressed in this blog by, among many others, Vanessa Giraud and…

Annulment, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /7 Comments

and Oleg Temnikov Foreword The recent decision on preliminary objections, dated 17 January 2014, against the application for annulment in Elsamex S.A. v. Honduras (ARB/09/4) brought renewed interest in the procedure for summary dismissal of unmeritorious claims under Rule 41(5) of the ICSID Arbitration Rules. The present post examines shortly this procedure as well as…

Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Turkey

(Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Although Turkey has ratified the ICSID Convention as early as in 1988, it was not until the recent decade that its domestic law recognized the possibility to resort to arbitration against the State. Until 2000s, disputes arising between a public authority and a private party were to be resolved in an appeal to administrative courts…

Energy, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investor

(Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Every now and then the arbitration society witnesses the filing of investor-state disputes in fields previously ‘unharmed’ by the spotlight of investment adjudication. Perhaps the most recent example is the ‘hydraulically fractured’ shale gas dispute against Canada (see Lone Pine v. Canada). In a similar manner, the Vattenfall II dispute over Germany’s nuclear phase-out has…

ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Latin America

(D'Empaire Reyna, Abogados)/ /1 Comment

Over the years Latin American countries have played an increasingly relevant role in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (the “ICSID”), with the highest proportion – 27% – of all cases handled by the Centre. Despite the high percentage these same countries have been increasingly expressing their dislike about having to resolve their…

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

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /Leave a comment

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…

Burden of proof, Corruption, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

Factual background On 4 October 2013 the Tribunal constituted under Metal-Tech Ltd.’s claim against Republic of Uzbekistan (G. Kauffman-Kohler, C. von Wobeser, J. Townsend) issued the award on jurisdiction in the ICSID case ARB/10/03. The peculiar factual background of the case has been previously discussed here. The approach taken by the Tribunal in this case…

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…

Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(Ilyashev & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

The “contribution of assets” requirement of the Salini test was often overlooked by commentators and tribunals, probably due to its “I-know-it-when-I-see-it” nature. The recent award in KT Asia Investment Group B.V. v Republic of Kazakhstan, however, demonstrates that a failure to meet the contribution requirement may put to rest a claim of an offshore company…