Clyde & Co LLP partnered with Jus Mundi and Queen Mary University of London (“QMUL”) School of International Arbitration to bring together a number of speakers on the development of arbitration and practice of investment in the Latin American (“LatAm”) region. The event kicked-off with a review of Jus Mundi’s latest energy arbitration report which…

“Corporations have their own global private court system – called ISDS – which they use to bully governments. But many victims of corporate human rights abuses don’t have any way of winning justice. This is unfair. We need to end these corporate courts now! Rights for people, rules for corporations.”  Letter from the Stop ISDS…

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…

The recently reported investment treaty claim by Singapore-based mining company Zeph Investments (“Zeph”) against Australia appears to be the latest in investor-State dispute claims arising out of climate change-related measures introduced by States. The claim was first disclosed on 10 July 2023 by the Attorney General’s Department of Australia in response to a question on…

On January 25, 2023 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued the preliminary decision in the case Ukraine and The Netherlands v. Russia where it clearly stated that certain “areas [of Ukraine] were, from 11 May 2014 and subsequently, under the effective control of the Russian Federation” (para. 695). This…

On 10 January 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal (“Paris CoA”) set aside the 50+ million USD UNCITRAL award rendered in the dispute between Komstroy (before Energoalians LLC, and now Stileks Scientific and Production Firm LLC (“Stileks”)) and the Republic of Moldova. The referring court applied the ruling rendered by the Court of Justice of…

On September 19, 2022, the Guatemalan Congress enacted the Act for Promotion of Investment of Foreign Capital, 46-2022 (Ley de Fomento de Inversión de Capital Extranjero) (the “Act”), which came into force on September 27, 2022. The Act aims to promote investment projects from foreign capital in Guatemala. The Act gives special treatment to foreign…

Following the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, dozens of states imposed sanctions against Russia. In response, Russia imposed or threatened to impose severe countermeasures on foreign investments associated with such “unfriendly states”. In this regard, several news outlets reported that Russia is in the process of implementing legislation that will interfere with foreign investments in…

The debate surrounding the meaning and scope of the term ‘investment’ under the ICSID Convention is a product of the larger tussle between capital exporting and capital importing states, which convened at Washington in the search for a mutually beneficial agreement on foreign investments. It has been argued by Prof. Julian Davis Mortenson that ‘investment’…

The recently surfaced award in IC Power Asia Development Ltd. v. Guatemala dated 7 October 2020 reveals the reasoning of the Tribunal’s majority in dismissing IC Power’s claims on the merits. A majority of Albert Jan van den Berg (chair) and Raúl Vinuesa (Respondent’s appointee) dismissed IC Power’s claims on the merits, while Guido Santiago…

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…

The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), agreed in principle in December 2020, was announced with great fanfare. Forged after seven years of negotiations between the world’s current largest trading block (the EU) and the country expected to have the world’s largest economy by the end of this decade (China), the CAI was set to…

The discussion within UNCITRAL Working Group III (WG III) on counterclaims has still remained, to a certain extent, deadlocked, as opposed to discussions on other topics under the table. As a result, the UNCITRAL Secretariat has been put (at least) until now in the unfortunate position of being unable to bring a coherent package of…

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism provided for by the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) (Article 26(2)c) is not applicable to intra-EU disputes (C-741/19). In the same decision, it also decided that the acquisition of a claim arising from an electricity supply contract does not constitute…

On 12 March 2021, Fangda Partners, ASAFO & CO and Delos Dispute Resolution hosted an interactive roundtable on “The Often-Overlooked Value of African Seats for African-Chinese Disputes”. The panelists for the roundtable discussion were Tunde Fagbohunlu SAN , Julia (Zhang) Le Roux, Michael Tam, Olga Boltenko and Peter Po Kwong Yuen, and it was moderated…

The 18th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference, hosted virtually for a half-day on March 23, 2021, discussed ongoing efforts at ICSID and UNCITRAL Working Group III to reform investment arbitration. José Alvarez (New York University School of Law) kicked off the conference by throwing down the gauntlet: procedural reform does not go far enough. In the long…

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, pharmaceutical companies have engaged in a highly competitive and risky vaccine race. In less than 10 months from the declaration of the global pandemic, the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech received its first regulatory approval, followed by the success stories of other companies. The swiftness of these results was praised as “unprecedented”…

The Investor-State Dispute Settlement regime is at the centre of a long-standing debate, subsequent reform efforts, and, more in general, great innovation. In this context, on 14 May 2021, a LIDW member-hosted event – organised and co-hosted by Clifford Chance, EFILA, Herbert Smith Freehills, Queen Mary University’s School of International Arbitration, and White & Case…

Introduction On April 1st, the new Government Procurement Act (“GPA”) came into force (Law n. 14,133/2021). The new Act brings many positive changes to the processes of tendering and bidding conducted by state entities. Its legal provisions intend to bring greater legal certainty for those who want to invest in large projects in Brazil led…

On November 26, 2020, the #YoungITATalks session took place with the participation of representatives from government offices of different countries: Mairée Uran Bidegain (Chile), María Paula Arenas Quijano (Colombia), Cindy Rayo Zapata (Mexico) and Ricardo Ampuero Llerena (Peru). All panelists are or, at some point, were responsible for organizing and preparing the defense of States…

No doubt, the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) has become the hottest topic in the investment treaty arbitration world. Not only are EU Member States the most frequent respondent in ECT disputes – for example, the Netherlands has recently received its first ECT claim – but the ECT itself is currently in the middle of a…

Much has been written – on this page and elsewhere – about the future viability of investor-state arbitration based on intra-EU BITs in the aftermath of the CJEU’s Achmea decision. In the authors’ view, the May 2020 Termination Agreement concluded between 23 of the 27 EU Member States with the intention to terminate existing intra-EU…

Negotiations on the Investment Protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) are set to start later this year. An AfCFTA Investment Protocol would provide significant opportunities for African countries. However, the negotiations will be complex, taking place amidst a backdrop of existing African international investment agreements (IIAs) already negotiated at the bilateral and…

The years since 2017 have witnessed a global trend of tightening foreign direct investment (FDI) screening processes. Major economies, including the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have moved towards stricter FDI rules. In all of these cases, security concerns and, in particular, the need to protect cutting-edge technologies against…