The two worlds are not that apart. In March 2021, UNCTAD released a report which addresses the potential implications of International Investment Agreements (IIAs) for tax-related measures. According to UNCTAD, both the IIAs regime and double taxation treaties (DTTs) address similar challenges, eg. indirect ownership, mailbox companies and time-sensitive restructuring. The report emphasizes that some…

Egypt has been trying to control the number of investor-state arbitration disputes which has been steeply increasing since 2011 and the Arab Spring movement (see past discussion on the Blog here). To that end, Egypt created alternative out-of-court forums for amicable settlement of existing arbitration cases and worked toward curbing the eruption of new cases…

The 2021 ICC Arbitration Rules introduce new procedures, update key provisions, and formalize the existing practices of the ICC Secretariat and the Court in order to allow for greater flexibility, efficiency and transparency in the administration of ICC arbitration cases. We will focus in this post on the changes made under the new Rules to…

Serafín García Armas and Karina García Gruber v. Venezuela and Clorox Spain v. Venezuela are different in many aspects. García Armas relates to dual nationality, while Clorox relates to protected investment. However, they have a common feature: Article 1(2) of the Spain–Venezuela BIT was key to their developments. That article defines investments as “any kind…