Work Area: Investor-state arbitration
France joins rush to exit ECT
France is the latest European country to announce it is pulling out of the Energy Charter Treaty because of environmental concerns, following similar moves by the Netherlands and Spain.
24 October 2022
White & Case withdraws as counsel to Belarus in ICSID case
Months after White & Case announced it would cease acting for Russian and Belarusian state clients in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the law firm has withdrawn as counsel to Belarus in one ICSID case but remains on the record in another.
24 October 2022
Spain fails to dislodge ICSID panel over procedural decisions
Spain has failed to disqualify three ICSID arbitrators hearing a claim by German renewables investors after arguing they showed bias through different treatment of the parties’ experts and their decision to hold a virtual hearing.
20 October 2022
Madagascar fails to annul clothes factory award
A split ICSID committee has upheld an award requiring Madagascar to pay €7 million to two Belgian brothers whose clothes factory was looted and burned down – rejecting arguments that the state didn't have effective legal representation during the arbitration.
20 October 2022
Netherlands moves to quit Energy Charter Treaty
The Dutch government has followed Spain and Poland in announcing plans to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, while other European states are reportedly considering abstaining from a vote next month on reforms to the treaty.
19 October 2022
Dutch court refuses to terminate intra-EU BIT claim
A judge in Amsterdam has refused to order a Dutch investor to terminate an intra-EU bilateral investment treaty arbitration against Poland on the basis of the Achmea ruling.
19 October 2022
Panama defeats ICSID claim over corruption probe
Panama has defeated an ICSID claim worth over US$100 million brought by a US engineering company and its CEO who said they were unjustly targeted by corruption and money laundering probes.
17 October 2022
Chinese-owned miner warns of ICC claim over Congo project
A subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned mining company says it intends to launch ICC arbitration after armed forces allegedly occupied the site of its copper mining project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
14 October 2022
Singapore's plans unmasked in interview with minister
On the day that Singaporeans were permitted to unmask inside for the first time since the pandemic, Lucy Reed interviewed Singapore's minister of home affairs and minister for law K Shanmugam SC about the city-state's future as a leading arbitration centre.
14 October 2022
Spain announces withdrawal from ECT
Spain says it is withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty because of climate concerns, a week after the lower chamber of Poland’s parliament voted near-unanimously to exit the treaty.
13 October 2022