investor-state disputes | ISDS
Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) refers to a way of handling conflicts under international investment agreements whereby companies from one party are allowed to sue the government of another party. This means they can file a complaint and seek compensation for damages. Many BITs and investment chapters of FTAs allow for this if the investor’s expectation of a profit has been negatively affected by some action that the host government took, such as changing a policy. The dispute is normally handled not in a public court but through a private abritration panel. The usual venues where these proceedings take place are the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank), the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law or the International Court of Justice.
ISDS is a hot topic right now because it is being challenged very strongly by concerned citizens in the context of the EU-US TTIP negotiations, the TransPacific Partnership talks and the CETA deal between Canada and the EU.
The basis of a claim in ISDS is always the applicable international investment agreement. There would always be differences and inconsistencies with an appellate mechanism.
Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan has said that Pakistan’s foremost effort in the Reko Diq mining case is to secure annulment of the $5.9 billion penalty.
Imperial Tobacco is working on available legal instruments of protection, including an international investment arbitration tribunal, to contest a fine imposed by Ukraine for anticompetitive concerted actions.
JCDecaux SA, an outdoor advertising, invited the Czech Republic to engage in discussions, as the first step in arbitration proceedings.
For the Kingdom, Carlyle did not justify the existence of investments in Morocco. The American group invokes the Morocco-United States free trade agreement while the contracts with Samir concern entities based in the Cayman Islands.
The case concerns a dispute submitted to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on the basis of the UK-Mauritius BIT.
Ukraine’s joint stock oil and gas company Naftogaz said the group seeks nearly $8 billion of compensation for its assets expropriated by Russia in Crimea.
This is far from the end of the Micula story. Enforcement proceedings continue in the United States, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden, and there are questions before the CJEU.
Chinese mining consortium Ecuagoldmining has initiated a dispute with Ecuador’s government over a gold mining project that has been halted by objections from community activists.
When it issued three interim awards for Yukos, the arbitral tribunal noted that the principle of provisional application of treaties was recognized under Russian law.
The arbitration between the US mining company Renco Group and Peru in relation to the metallurgical deposit in La Oroya was reopened, at the request of the mining company.
As observers of the UNCITRAL process, we watch the debates with great interest, writing about the emergence of different camps, giving perspectives on how the process fits within broader geopolitical developments, and offering potential models for moving forward.
A Dutch appeals court reinstated an international arbitration panel’s order that it should pay $50 billion compensation to shareholders in former oil company Yukos.
As a long-running dispute between Exxon Mobil Corp. and the government of Canada reached a multimillion-dollar settlement, lawyers for ExxonMobil announced.
One of Tanzania’s concessions to Barrick in the new deal is the right to seek international arbitration in case of disputes.
Vodafone’s dispute relates to its $11 billion acquisition of a 67% stake in the mobile-phone business owned by Hutchison Whampoa. Cairn Energy is contesting a big tax bill that Indian government raised for a 2006 transaction.
Brazil construction company Odebrecht SA has taken Peru to arbitration over a failed $2 billion investment in a gas pipeline.
The ride-hailing firm said its initial calculations suggest damages from suspending its service in Colombia will exceed $250 million.
The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes has approved Pakistan’s petition for a review in the Reko Diq case in which the country was slapped with a $6 billion fine.
Pakistan’s team exchanged its draft agreement with Turkish team’s draft and prepared a consensus document which will again be shared with the federal cabinet for approval before presenting it to the ICSID.
