Topic: Arbitrator challenges

A Kenyan company has obtained a court order in Nairobi requiring the ICC to turn over documents for use in a fraud suit against an arbitrator – and says it has filed related criminal complaints against tribunal members in France and Austria.

02 November 2020

Venezuela has failed to unseat Argentine arbitrator Horacio Grigera Naón from an ICSID tribunal over allegations the claimant’s counsel provided him with legal advice while the case was pending.

28 October 2020

ICSID has published a decision that dismissed an attempt by the claimants in a case against Kuwait to disqualify the late VV Veeder QC and Zachary Douglas QC, who the claimants had proposed as tribunal chair but then later accused of a “pro-state bias”.

22 October 2020

French arbitrator Pierre Mayer will continue hearing an ICSID case against Cameroon after surviving a challenge brought on the basis of his failure to disclose advocacy work he performed for the state in the famous Klöckner case more than 30 years ago.

28 September 2020

A Ukrainian scrap metal investor seeks to disqualify an ICSID tribunal hearing his €75 million claim against Latvia after it found prima facie evidence of his “unusual business practices”, the Baltic state has revealed.

09 September 2020

Spain has for the second time challenged an ICSID tribunal hearing a renewables claim brought by several German banks – arguing that the arbitrators’ stated reasons for insisting on a virtual hearing are based on misrepresentations about their ability to travel during the coronavirus pandemic.

14 August 2020

Germany has failed in a second attempt to disqualify the ICSID tribunal hearing a €4.7 billion claim brought by Swedish company Vattenfall over its phase-out of nuclear energy – after arguing that an arbitrator’s failure to disclose an alleged issue conflict and the tribunal’s refusal to delay a hearing in the face of the covid-19 pandemic showed bias.

09 July 2020

Spain has failed to disqualify Australian James Spigelman QC from hearing an ICSID claim brought by a Belgian solar investor on the ground that he had “prejudged” the case through his participation in a previous case relating to the state’s renewable energy reforms.

29 June 2020

UPDATED WITH DECISION. Five shareholders in a Latvian bank have failed to unseat all three members of an ICSID tribunal over their decision to allow a court-appointed insolvency administrator to represent the bank during a jurisdictional phase of the case.

19 June 2020

A UK oil and gas company has failed to dislodge French arbitrator Brigitte Stern from an ICSID tribunal on the basis of her repeat appointments by states and by Egypt in particular.

08 June 2020