Work Area: Sanctions

The Court of Appeal in London has confirmed that Iran’s Ministry of Defence is not entitled to interest that has accrued on a £128 million ICC award against a UK state-owned entity following the imposition of EU sanctions – saying the measures were intended to have “confiscatory consequences.”

13 February 2020

A panel at GAR Live Vienna considered the impact of economic sanctions on international arbitration, including whether arbitrators have a duty to enforce sanctions, defences based on force majeure and the difficulties faced by institutions in taking payment of fees.

02 December 2019

A Russian engineering company hit with US sanctions has reportedly brought a SIAC claim against state-owned PetroVietnam over a stalled project to build a US$1.3 billion power plant.

04 November 2019

An English court has ruled that a UK government-owned supplier of military vehicles is not liable to pay interest on a £128 million award in favour of Iran’s Ministry of Defence that has accrued while it has been subject to EU sanctions.

25 July 2019

The International Court of Justice has issued provisional measures requiring the United States to ease some of the sanctions it imposed on Iran following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal over the Iranian nuclear programme.

03 October 2018

A panel at GAR Live New York examined the impact of sanctions on international arbitration, enforcement proceedings and settlement negotiations, considering whether they can have force majeure effect, the need for government licences to represent sanctioned parties and the complications in getting paid when sanctions are in the way.

02 October 2018

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Moscow disputes head has left the firm along with 12 other lawyers, including five who practise international arbitration, to set up a new practice, citing US sanctions against Russia as the main reason for the move.

19 September 2018

Consider the following, not-impossible scenario. An arbitration in Switzerland, with UK and Iranian parties. The arbitrators are from France, Belgium and India. Do any sanctions apply? Would your answer change if one of the arbitrators were from the US? Such questions were discussed at last year’s GAR Live London, guided by Hans van Houtte, then president of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.

23 April 2018

The first known investment treaty case against Bahrain has made headlines after the state alleged that Iran secretly dodged sanctions for more than a decade with the help of a corrupt bank owned by the claimants that was introduced to the kingdom as a “Trojan horse”.

04 April 2018

A US court has refused to set aside the award in a dispute over the Ukrainian version of Forbes magazine - denying that the New York-seated case should have been halted after the owner of the publishing rights was placed on the US sanctions list because of his ties to exiled president Viktor Yanukovych.

11 August 2017