Back from the summer months, our editors are here to provide you with an overview of some of the key events from the past quarter, which was by no means a slow period in the world of international investment law and arbitration. The EU continued to assert its stance on intra-EU arbitration, while also influencing… Read More Quarterly Review: July – September 2024
By Guofang Xue[1] Introduction While the EU and its Member States have decided to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”), citing the ECT’s incompatibility with green energy goals, Switzerland remains mindful of such a decision’s potential impact on Swiss energy companies and investment funds. In a landmark judgment dated 3 April 2024 (Case No.… Read More The Swiss Supreme Court weighs in on Achmea and Komstroy
The first quarter of 2024 proved full of developments and surprises in the realm of international investment law and arbitration. Our editorial board has collected some of the significant highlights for your consideration in this Quarterly Review. Case Law Updates At the start of the year, we have learnt that one of the most contentious… Read More Quarterly Review: January – March 2024
by Ioana Maria Bratu[1] On 19 January 2024 the High Court of Justice of England and Wales (EWHC or the English court) dismissed Zimbabwe’s state immunity argument to set aside the 2015 $125m ICSID arbitration award in Border Timbers Limited & Anor v Republic of Zimbabwe ([2024] EWHC 58 (Comm)). While the Court ultimately sided… Read More The Future of Enforcement in the UK: English Court provides a novel attitude to State immunity in Border Timbers v Republic of Zimbabwe
The last quarter of 2023 was as eventful as the rest of the year which has witnessed the “meltdown” of the Energy Charter Treaty, the adoption of the Code of Conduct for Arbitrators and the reform of the arbitration acts by the UK, Japan, Nigeria, and Luxembourg. From the Australian and UK courts granting enforcement… Read More Quarterly Review: October – December 2023
by Aleksander Kalisz[1] In the recent Infrastructure Services Luxembourg v Spain [2023] EWHC 1226 (Comm), the English High Court dismissed an application by Spain to set aside an order to register an ICSID arbitral award in favour of Infrastructure Services Luxembourg. In doing so, the High Court rejected Spain’s objection to the enforcement of intra-EU… Read More Intra-EU Objections and Enforcement of ICSID Awards: English High Court Takes a Pro-arbitration Stance
While we slowly approach summer holidays, it is now time for a new quarterly review. In this QR, we summarised the main developments in the field of ISDS and EU law divided by topic, instead of by months. Paragraph I. provides an update on the latest news on the modernisation of the ECT and the… Read More Quarterly Review: April – June 2023
The first quarter of 2023 proved rife with important developments in international investment law and arbitration involving Europe, the United States and the Indo-Pacific area. The star of the show remains the ECT, and its troubled relationship with the European Union and its Member States. Indeed, by the beginning of March, the Depositary of the… Read More Quarterly Review: January – March 2023