What if Spain sued Argentina on behalf of Repsol?
This week, Spanish energy firm Repsol put Argentina on notice of an arbitration claim under the Spain-Argentina bilateral investment treaty. The development comes as no surprise, as Repsol had been threatening for some weeks to take such a course if Argentina persisted in nationalizing the bulk of Repsol’s 57% stake in the Argentine firm YPF.
But am I the only person who was wondering whether Spain might step forward to sue Argentina on behalf of Repsol?
To be sure, a state-to-state claim would swim against the tide of conventional wisdom. After all, modern Bilateral Investment Treaties contain investor-to-state arbitration clauses precisely so that investors can fight their own legal bat [...]
Fast-track arbitrations can be slow to get rolling
It looks like The Amazing Kreskin can rest easy.
Last August, I tried my hand at forecasting the future, and I’m not sure I brought credit to the field of prognostication.
In my earlier blog post, I’d commented on a novel state-to-state arbitration initiated by the United States against the Republic of Guatemala.
(The U.S. accuses Guatemala of failing to enforce its own labour laws, thus placing the latter country in possible violation of its obligations under the labour chapter of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).)
After looking at the fast-track arbitration sketched out in CAFTA Chapter 20, I predicted that the arbitral proceeding might be wrapped up in as little [...]
The Expanding Audience for Open Arbitration Hearings
It’s been nearly two months since public hearings concluded in an ICSID arbitration brought by a U.S. investor, Railroad Development Corporation, against the Republic of Guatemala.
And it’s been about 8 months since public hearings wrapped up in another ICSID arbitration between Pacific Rim and the Republic of El Salvador.
Both proceedings were webcast online, and perhaps you tuned into one or both proceedings at some point during the hearings?
Or, more likely, you didn’t.
But, either way, you’ll enjoy the luxury of going back and watching an archived video of these proceedings on the ICSID website at some later date.
I think that’s worth reflecting upon.
Some of the first “publ [...]
Notes from NYU’s Forum on the Chevron-Ecuador dispute
As Roger Alford mentioned previously, New York University Law School hosted a discussion of the Chevron-Ecuador dispute on October 24th.
The event was subject to the Chatham House rules, so my notes below should not be attributed to any particular panelist or audience members. However, in the case of moderator Michael Goldhaber, his views have been publicized in his magazine columns, one of which is referenced below. (Roger intends to blog about his own talk, so I’ll leave him to weigh in further in this space).
In no particular order, here a couple things that caught my ear at the NYU event:
• Until recently, arbitrators had been able to ride in the slipstream of the U.S. Courts, to bo [...]
The Pyramid Enforcement Scheme
Recent reports of the freezing of Russian government funds at the Stockholm Arbitration Institute may be premature, but it still remains possible that a Swedish bailiff could move to seize such funds.
At the time of this writing, a freezing request by German businessman Franz Sedelmayer remained under active review at a Swedish government debt enforcement agency.
Mr. Sedelmayer, you may recall, is the bearer of a real collector’s item: a vintage 1998 arbitral award in which the Russian Federation was ordered to pay some $2.35 Million (US) for helping itself to the German businessman’s St. Petersburg-based private security company.
Since 1998, Mr. Sedelmayer has made a second career out o [...]
CAFTA Labour Arbitration Should Play Out on Fast Track
If you’ve been watching the headlines this month, you may have noticed that the United States of America has launched a novel arbitration against the Republic of Guatemala.
The claim alleges that Guatemala is failing to enforce its own labour laws, thus falling afoul of international legal obligations written into the U.S. Free Trade Agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR).
While there have been a handful of arbitration claims brought under the CAFTA-DR’s investor-state dispute process, the U.S.-Guatemala proceeding is apparently the first state-to-state claim to be brought pursuant to Chapter 20 of the same agreement.
Those familiar with the rather leisure [...]
