Work Area: Investor-state arbitration
Edinburgh hosts inaugural ArbFest
The inaugural Edinburgh International Arbitration Festival, or ArbFest, took place on 21 and 22 September, featuring discussion of emerging technologies and ESG, the advantages of smaller institutions and ISDS. Lilit Nagapetyan, PhD candidate at the Queen Mary School of International Arbitration, reports.
26 September 2023
Guatemalan renewables investors bring claim against Honduras
A pair of Guatemalan renewable energy investors are pursuing a DR-CAFTA claim against Honduras, as a group of US claimants drop their bid to revive a case against Nicaragua under the same free trade agreement.
22 September 2023
Oxy pays Yemen to settle ICC awards
Houston’s Occidental Petroleum has agreed to pay a net sum to Yemen to settle awards rendered in two ICC arbitrations relating to the same oil block, bringing an end to enforcement proceedings in Delaware.
22 September 2023
UK Supreme Court allows Mozambique bribery suit to proceed
The UK Supreme Court has held that bribery claims brought by Mozambique in a US$2 billion suit against an Abu Dhabi shipbuilder don’t fall within the scope of Swiss-law arbitration agreements – the first time it has ruled on the stay provisions in the Arbitration Act 1996.
20 September 2023
Awards emerge in Bangladeshi energy disputes
As Bangladesh contends with an energy crisis, details of two concluded arbitrations against state entities in that sector have come to light – including one where a contractor unsuccessfully argued that an influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar prevented it from building a solar park.
20 September 2023
A new era for investment disputes across Africa?
The modernisation of the African investment treaty system and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area is underway, with the African Union’s adoption of the final draft of the investment protocol earlier this year, writes Thomas Kendra of Hogan Lovells in Paris.
20 September 2023
Iranian funds leave Korea after US prisoner swap
South Korea has confirmed the transfer of billions of dollars of Iranian funds that were frozen four years ago because of US sanctions – and gave rise to the threat of an investment treaty claim by Iran’s Central Bank.
19 September 2023
Japanese solar investor pursues Spain in US court
A Japanese company has applied to a US court to enforce an ICSID award requiring Spain to pay over €23.5 million for changes to its incentives regime for solar power plants, putting the award in the public domain.
18 September 2023
Failed BIT claim leads to human rights complaint
A Spanish-Venezuelan businessman has complained to the European Court of Human Rights over the Dutch courts’ refusal to review the dismissal of a US$240 million investment treaty claim against Venezuela.
15 September 2023
Italy fails to annul renewables award at ICSID
An ICSID committee has upheld an Energy Charter Treaty award that requires Italy to pay over €16 million to German and Austrian investment funds for changes to its incentives regime for solar power.
15 September 2023