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.
20-Oct-2020
Reuters
OTP Bank has sued the Croatian government to recover about $34.60 million it lost during a mandatory conversion of Swiss franc-denominated loans to euro-based loans in 2015.
19-Oct-2020
UrduPoint
The agreement for the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments between France and Colombia has entered into force, at the time of the pandemic-related economic crisis.
19-Oct-2020
Drilled
Expert Marcos Orellana walks us through the shadowy arbitration system, the Chevron case in particular, and what it all means for global climate action.
19-Oct-2020
The Cable
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Re:Common, Global Witness, and Corner House, have called on the Nigerian government to stand against Eni’s legal move over the oil processing license (OPL) 245.
15-Oct-2020
Telecompaper
Orange Group has instituted legal proceedings against Iraq in an attempt to claw back more than USD 400 million in investments it alleges were expropriated by the country’s regulator.
14-Oct-2020
Reuters
Eni plans to argue that the country’s failure to allow it to exploit an oilfield it acquired with Royal Dutch Shell nearly a decade ago breaches their investment agreement.
9-Oct-2020
Journal of Economic Surveys
74 studies find robust evidence that effect of international investment agreements on foreign direct investment is so small as to be considered zero.
5-Oct-2020
IIED
A complex set of international legal measures protecting the fossil fuel industry risks significantly increasing the cost of moving to green energy and tackling climate change, a new report reveals.
5-Oct-2020
Clean Energy Wire
The German government writes that around 21.7 million euros have been spent on lawyers, expert witnesses and court fees.
1-Oct-2020
Deccan Herald
The Indian government plans to contest the judgement on the Vodafone arbitration award in Hague.
30-Sep-2020
Live Mint
Cairn is seeking full restitution for losses resulting from the expropriation of its investments in India in 2014.
30-Sep-2020
New Indian Express
India will try and keep its taxation laws out of the ambit of all Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and comprehensive economic pacts that it negotiates.
30-Sep-2020
Mining Weekly
Indiana Resources has lodged a $95-million compensation claim against the government of Tanzania over the "illegal expropriation” of the Ntaka Hill nickel project.
28-Sep-2020
Albanian Daily News
KURUM company sued Albania at the International Court of Arbitration asking EUR 100 mln for termination of the contract of the container terminal in Durresi Harbor.
28-Sep-2020
livemint
Vodafone Group Plc’s big win against the Indian government could set a precedent for similar arbitration cases, including the one initiated by Cairn Energy Plc.
25-Sep-2020
Reuters
Vodafone won an international arbitration case against the Indian government, ending one of the most high-profile disputes in the country involving a $2 billion tax claim.
24-Sep-2020
Out-Law
Investors in renewable energy projects in Ukraine are considering legal action after feed-in tariffs for solar and onshore wind power plants were reduced retroactively to 2015, according to an expert.
23-Sep-2020
CCSI
It appears that investors are using investment treaties in ways that can significantly frustrate government efforts to effectively and adequately regulate public private partnerships in the public interest.
18-Sep-2020
The News
The World Bank’s ICSID has granted Pakistan a stay order of six months in the Reko Diq case in which Islamabad was awarded with a whopping $6 billion fine.
17-Sep-2020
AFTINET
A written submission from Japan published by the ECT secretariat rejected language on the “right to regulate” and changes to the investor-state dispute resolution mechanism.
bilaterals.org team, Jan 2021