Work Area: Investor-state arbitration

An ICSID tribunal has rejected Colombia’s preliminary objections to a US$250 million treaty claim brought by a Canadian company which says illegal miners have blocked access to its gold and silver projects in the country.

01 December 2020

The Court of Appeal in London has ruled that a property developer’s US$130 million award against Nigeria’s airports authority should be enforced – holding that a first-instance judge was wrong to rescind an order for its enforcement after the respondent belatedly posted security.

01 December 2020

The consortium that oversaw the expansion of the Panama Canal has applied to set aside a US$265 million ICC award in favour of the canal authority, alleging that the arbitrators failed to disclose “multiple cross-appointments and inter-relationships”.

27 November 2020

An arbitral tribunal has reportedly upheld jurisdiction over a third-party funded claim worth up to US$35 billion brought against Brazil by a minority shareholder in Petrobras over losses the state-owned oil company sustained as a result of the Lava Jato corruption probe.

25 November 2020

The controversy over International Court of Justice judges moonlighting as arbitrators has kicked off again, with an article alleging that Judge Peter Tomka has accepted appointments to investor-state tribunals despite ICJ guidelines against the practice.

25 November 2020

The Commercial Court in London has set aside the quantum findings in a US$50 million investment treaty award in favour of a Canadian mining company against Kazakhstan after ruling that the state was not given a fair opportunity to address damages.

24 November 2020

Chile’s state-owned copper company has threatened to file an investment treaty claim against Ecuador over the alleged failure of its national mining company to comply with agreements to develop a multibillion copper project near Quito.

24 November 2020

A US court has granted Russia a stay of enforcement on the US$50 billion Yukos awards while the state pursues its set aside bid in the Netherlands.

23 November 2020

A court in Zambia has blocked proceedings brought by a Zambian state-owned entity to wind-up its copper mining joint venture with the UK’s Vedanta Holdings, pending the resolution of an UNCITRAL arbitration between the parties.

23 November 2020

An entity linked to Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky has failed in an unusual attempt to halt the enforcement of a US$1.1 billion award against Russia – as it races to collect on its own treaty award compensating it for expropriated assets in Crimea.

20 November 2020