Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

Attribution, International Court of Justice, International Investment Arbitration, Public international law, State Responsibility, State Responsibility for Damage, Treaty Interpretation, VCLT, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Washington Arbitration Week

(PDGB), (Concepción Global, PLLC, Universidad Complutense de Madrid), , and (Xtrategy LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 30th of November 2022, Washington Arbitration Week 2022 continued with several panels held in hybrid format. This post presents some highlights of the panel titled ‘The Influence of Public International Law in Investment Arbitration,’ which featured as moderator Mr. Lee M. Caplan (Arent Fox) and as panelists Prof. Dr. Yannick Radi (UC Louvain), Ms….

International Humanitarian Law, International Investment Arbitration, International Investment Law, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC)

On Thursday, 6th October 2022, the Asian International Arbitration Centre (“AIAC”) kickstarted its first-ever hybrid Asia ADR Week conference, themed Compassus: The Odyssean Course to the Modern ADR with a session titled Here Comes Sparta – The Impact of Armed Conflicts on International Arbitrations. The insightful discussion was moderated by Dr Ana Maria Daza-Clark (University…

Russia, Termination, Treaty, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine consolidated the international community in strong political condemnation and accompanying legal sanctions against vital sectors of the Russian economy. International business followed suit with more and more multinational companies ceasing their investments in Russia or pulling out their businesses entirely. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Russian response…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, BIT, International arbitration, Intra-EU BITs, Investment Arbitration, Joint Interpretation Clauses, NAFTA, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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State parties’ “mutual actions” over a treaty – including interventions such as interpretation, modification and termination – have flourished in recent investment treaty practice. This trend brings to the fore the question of whether there are any limits to such actions, particularly due to the involvement of non-State entities, such as investors and arbitral tribunals….

Arbitration Agreement, Energy Charter Treaty, Russia, Treaty Interpretation, UNCITRAL, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Yukos

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Introduction On the 18th of February, the Court of Appeal in The Hague reversed the lower court’s decision annulling the awards rendered against the Russian Federation in Veteran Petroleum Ltd., Yukos Universal Ltd. and Hulley Enterprises Ltd. cases. The awards are thus revived. Notwithstanding the global notoriety and public controversy, the identity of the protagonists,…

National Courts, New York Convention, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Those applying treaties and interpreting them must remember two salient points: (1) as international adjudicators or as members of the judiciary they must apply a treaty not on the basis of discretionary powers and a judicial hunch but on the basis of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) and (2) lack of…

Achmea, Energy Charter Treaty, European Law, Intra-EU BITs, Intra-EU ISDS, Investment Arbitration, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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The Cold War era brought to life, in a strange way, a number of all-encompassing treaties dealing with major subjects such as international treaty-making, diplomatic relations, law of seas, etc. Even among the topics covered by these treaties were enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and investment disputes. However, it seems like the world has already…

International Investment Arbitration, International Law, International tribunals, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment law, Investment Treaties, ISDS, ISDS Reform, Transparency, Treaty, Treaty Interpretation, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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The growing public interest in investment treaties and investor-State dispute settlement has prompted an increasing number of States to open to public view aspects of investment treaty negotiations. During the negotiation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (‘TTIP’), for example, both the European Union and the United States sought to ‘maximise’ transparency in the…

International arbitration, International Law, International tribunals, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment law, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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The Vienna Convention rules for treaty interpretation (VCLT) routinely referred to by all international courts and tribunals are known to be the result of a compromise between different schools of interpretation and therefore notoriously flexible, in my view too flexible for the purposes of modern-day international dispute resolution. Cases are therefore won and lost according…

ICSID Arbitration, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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It is well settled in the practice of ICSID tribunals that the general rule of treaty interpretation embodied in Article 31(1) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (“Vienna Convention”) applies to the interpretation of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (“ICSID Convention”). While…

Decision Making, ICSID Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Investor-State arbitration, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Legal Reasoning: Interpreting and Applying the Law1)Mary Mitsi, The Decision-Making Process of Investor-State Arbitration Tribunals (Kluwer 2019). When analysing the process of legal decision-making what might first come to mind is the dichotomy between the interpretation and the application of the law. These terms, in some circumstances, may be employed interchangeably due to the strong…

Decision Making, ICSID Arbitration, International Law, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment Treaties, VCLT, VCLT Jubilee, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) was adopted and opened for signature on May 23, 1969, and entered into force on January 27, 1980. In the fifty years since the VCLT was opened for signature, it has become universally regarded as one of the most important instruments of treaty law. It has…

Achmea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Treaty, Uncategorized, VCLT, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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The Effects of Achmea on the Prospective EU Member States  Much ink has been spilt on of the aftermath of the CJEU Achmea decision which has turned the world of arbitration on its head. In-depth analysis and commentary were previously featured on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog as well. Following the decision of the CJEU and…

Achmea, ECJ, Enforcement, Jurisdiction, New York Convention, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, TFEU, Treaty, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Considering what the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) said in its Judgment of 6 March 2018, under Case C‑284/16, widely known as the “Achmea judgment” (“Achmea”), one begs the question: How this should be perceived in practice?  Because, when interpreting EU law not to be compatible with BIT-based dispute resolution, or vice…

BIT, China, Customary international law, Expropriation, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investor, Laos, Macau, Singapore, Singapore Court of Appeal, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

, , (Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /1 Comment
WilmerHale

Part I of this two-part blog post summarized the recent judgment of the Singapore Court of Appeal (“SGCA” or the “Court”) in Sanum Investments Ltd. v Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (“Sanum v Laos”). This Part II provides some comments on that judgment and its significance, including its impact on future Singapore court…

BIT, China, Customary international law, Expropriation, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investor, Laos, Macau, Singapore, Taxation, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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

On 29 September 2016, the Singapore Court of Appeal (“SGCA” or the “Court”) released its much-anticipated judgment in Sanum Investments Ltd. v Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (“Sanum v Laos”). In a carefully reasoned decision, Singapore’s apex court reversed a decision of the Singapore High Court, which had previously held that an UNCITRAL…

Australia, CAFTA, Indonesia, KORUS, TPP, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Treaty, UNCLOS, United States, VCLT, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Vietnam

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In the United States, approval prospects may appear bleak for the Trans-Pacific Partnership  Agreement (“TPP”) – at least at present. The current political climate appears generally negative on trade, and even Vice President Joe Biden stated recently that he saw “less than an even chance” that TPP would be approved before the new U.S. president…

New York Convention, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

(Albright StoneBridge Group)/ /1 Comment

The 1958 United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“The New York Convention”) is an international instrument: a treaty between 156 States. It is interpreted on the basis of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (“The VCLT”). The VCLT is further defined in this post with a useful…

ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, International Court of Justice, Investment Arbitration, Precedent, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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It is well settled that there is no rule of precedent in investment arbitration and arbitrators are not bound by decisions rendered by previous tribunals. Nevertheless, investment arbitration practice shows that previous decisions are often observed and followed. Disputing parties and arbitrators devote significant attention to previous decisions and on several occasions arbitral tribunals rely…

Argentina, BIT, Consent, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

On November 17, 2014, the tribunal in Alemanni v. Argentine Republic issued its long-anticipated decision on jurisdiction and admissibility. Alemanni is the third in a series of large-scale arbitrations arising out of Argentina’s default on its sovereign debt, and the most recent decision bears some resemblance to the preliminary awards rendered in the other two…

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

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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…

Corruption, Fraud, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Public Policy, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Chair: Klaus Reichert SC (London) Main Speakers: Dr. Aloysius Llamzon (The Hague), Anthony Sinclair (London) Commentators: Utku Cosar (Istanbul), Carolyn B. Lamm (Washington, DC) Rapporteur: Elizabeth Karanja (Nairobi) No one would seriously challenge the proposition that investor wrongdoing is a systemic threat to international investment arbitration. But what constitutes investor wrongdoing? What are the standards…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Treaty, Uncategorized, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

Because international investment law so often involves the application of treaties, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties plays a key role in structuring its application. Of particular interest for many disputes are the rules of treaty interpretation contained in Articles 31, 32, and 33 of the VCLT. In that context, there are some…

ASEAN, BIT, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, NAFTA, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

(University of Notre Dame)/ /3 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

Investment treaty provisions that allow joint decisions by States Parties to override or control arbitral tribunals’ interpretations of investment treaty standards scarcely appear in international investment agreements. The recently released 2012 United States Model BIT is a rare example. The 2012 version carried over Article 30(3) of the 2004 United States Model BIT, enabling States…