In the case of Santamarta v Venezuela, the dispute involved a dual national of Venezuela and Spain, who filed a claim against Venezuela for allegedly obstructing Santamarta’s pharmaceutical business, including an unlawful confiscation of a manufacturing plant. The arbitration proceedings were conducted in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (1976) on the basis of the…

On 3 February 2023, Colombia and Venezuela entered into an Agreement for the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments (“Treaty”), with the objective of “incrementing the flow of transborder direct investment.” Both states are still to complete the ratification procedure for the Treaty to enter into force. This is an interesting development, especially considering the…

Can a court restrain a State from pursuing civil proceedings in a foreign jurisdiction? This was the question before the English High Court in UK P&I Club N.V. and United Kingdom Mutual Steam Ship Assurance Association Ltd v República Bolivariana de Venezuela RCGS “Resolute” [2022] EWHC 1655 (Comm). UK P&I Club N.V. (the “English Club”)…

Bilateral investment treaties depend upon international arbitration as the mechanism to resolve disputes between sovereign states and investors. Although offering obvious advantages over litigation before national courts, investors are not immune from the risk of proceedings becoming destabilized by external factors. A recent example involved Air Canada, the country’s flag carrier, and the Bolivarian Republic…

Nicolas Maduro was “reelected” President of Venezuela for the constitutional period from 2019 to 2025. This presidential election was the subject of serious questions by large representative sectors of Venezuelan society, as well as by the United States, the European Union, and most Western Hemisphere countries. Given this situation, Juan Guaidó, as head of the…

Corruption, annulment of arbitral awards and court intervention mark the main developments for 2020 in Latin America.  Our contributors this year reported on the most important judicial decisions and legislative measures impacting the legal framework of various jurisdictions in the region. A new ‘hot topic’ arising from the COVID-19 pandemic is the interplay between arbitration…

In 2020, we witnessed a number of interesting developments in the field of investment arbitration in Latin America. From the entry into force of the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) signed over a year ago, as well as numerous cases and actions still arising from the Odebrecht scandal that became public back…

Recently, the Constitutional Chamber of the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (the “Court”) issued an interlocutory judgment ordering the Business Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (CEDCA) to stay an arbitration and to forward the arbitration file in order to decide on a request for “avocamiento” filed by one of the parties before the Court. This…

In a previous post, which discussed the Ballantines award, the author concluded that doors for dual nationals’ claims are being closed, including for non-ICSID cases where the relevant treaty does not have a provision dealing with the issue. The recent Heemsen v. Venezuela jurisdictional award confirms this approach. Unanimously, a PCA tribunal declined jurisdiction over…

2019 was a lively year for international arbitration in Latin America – especially in the international commercial arbitration arena, which is the focus of this post. Contributors to Kluwer Arbitration Blog reported mostly on favorable developments on arbitration-related legislation, case law and other initiatives. The year, however, ended with a regrettable situation in Peru, where…

Interesting developments in disputes involving Venezuela and its national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) took place after Juan Guaidò, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, took the interim Presidency of the State in January 2019. Since then, he has adopted a series of measures and intervened in a series of proceedings involving…

This post analyses a series of ICSID arbitration awards against Venezuela since 2014 to understand a pressing concern in many investment arbitrations today: how to deal with the risk of expropriation in quantum calculations. Getting this right is critical to ensure that host states do not benefit from their own wrongful conduct and that investors…

“The problem with money,” wrote the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, “is that it costs too much.” This may soon ring all too true for some investment treaty arbitration claimants and the third parties that seek to fund their claims. Recent developments suggest that there may be support – albeit embryonic – for…

This post focuses on two decisions issued by the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice in the Corporación LSR case. The decisions constitute an unexpected change in the approach of the Supreme Court towards arbitration, deviating from its latest and vastly commented case law regarding commercial arbitration matters. Background The dispute in Corporación LSR arose out…

Principles of adverse inferences are applied universally. International law endorses the arbitrator’s inherent authority to draw adverse inferences against a party for unjustified non-compliance with an order to produce information. Moreover, arbitrators can rely on general principles of law when applying adverse inferences as a basis for decisions. The general principle of good faith imposes…

This Post analyzes the recent award in Fábrica de Vidrios Los Andes, C.A. & Owens-Illinois de Venezuela, C.A. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (“Favianca”). This is the first award to rely on Article 72 of the ICSID Convention to decline jurisdiction over a claim filed after Venezuela had noticed it would denounce the ICSID Convention…

The epitome – and uncontroversial part – of the legitimate expectations doctrine is that a sovereign’s failure to live up to its promises made towards an investor who relied on such promise to make an investment – or to continue an investment – is a breach of the fair and equitable treatment standard. Practice has,…

Recently the U.S. Executive Branch made headlines by agreeing with Venezuela. In particular, the Executive Branch filed an amicus curiae submission in New York federal appeals court in which it agreed with Venezuela regarding the treatment of ICSID awards in U.S. courts. According to the U.S. Executive (and Venezuela), a party seeking recognition of an…

For natural persons, possession of the nationality of the host state is an absolute bar to becoming a party to ICSID proceedings against that state. Article 25 of the ICSID Convention delimits the scope of arbitral jurisdiction to investment disputes between a ‘Contracting State’ and a ‘national of another Contracting State’, defined as ‘any natural…

Apropos of a recent decision in ConocoPhillips v. Venezuela (ICSID Case No ARB/07/30), this post discusses the potential underlying concerns an arbitral tribunal may consider when deciding whether it can revise earlier decisions within the context of fragmented proceedings. Background The ICSID proceedings in ConocoPhillips v. Venezuela (ICSID Case No ARB/07/30) commenced in November 2007…

The four most recent ICSID disqualification decisions (Universal Compression v. Venezuela, OPIC Karimum v. Venezuela, Tidewater v. Venezuela and Urbaser v. Argentina) have unanimously rejected applications to disqualify arbitrators on ICSID tribunals.  This post addresses an issue raised in three of the most recent decisions—disqualification based on repeat appointments by the same party or counsel—and…

Two ICSID tribunals have now weighed in on the much-debated question of whether Art. 22 of Venezuela’s Foreign Investment Law provides Venezuela’s consent to ICSID arbitration. In Decisions on Jurisdiction dated June and December 2010, the Mobil and Cemex tribunals (both presided by the former president of the ICJ, Judge Gilbert Guillaume), rejected investors’ submissions…