The last three months of 2024 saw significant developments in the fields of international arbitration and investment treaty disputes. Key decisions and legislative reforms took place, once again shaping the arbitration landscape and reinforcing legal certainty in several jurisdictions, with repercussions in the following months. ECT Modernisation and Termination of Intra-EU BITs. EU stakeholders body… Read More Quarterly Review: October – December 2024
by Agata Daszko[1] In a recently surfaced judgment (I ZB 12/23), the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has affirmed the partial enforcement of the Deutsche Telekom v. India UNCITRAL award, clarifying the boundaries of European Union law in relation to extra-EU investment treaty arbitrations. This ruling, dated 12 October 2023, addresses the interplay… Read More Germany’s Highest Civil Court Reinforces the Distinction Between Intra-EU and Extra-EU Arbitration
By Emma A. Iannini[1] It was not so long ago that many attorneys, academics, and European intellectuals might have described the EU and the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) as one of the crowning achievements of public international law. Despite its self-described sui generis nature, there is no doubt that the EU,… Read More Euroscepticism: A Driver of the EU’s Clash with ISDS and Public International Law?
The Editorial Board of the EFILA Blog is excited to share the first EFILA Blog Quarterly Review! Our editors have gathered and reviewed developments, events and publications from the last quarter of 2022 to highlight some of the most relevant news in the field of international investment law, arbitration and the intersection of ISDS with… Read More Quarterly Review: October – December 2022
Alexandros Catalin Bakos, LL.M. Candidate, Utrecht University In a somewhat fortunate turn of events for the stability (or what is left of it in any case) of the intra-European Union (intra-EU) investment treaty system, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) has annulled the EU Commission’s decision rendered against Romania for illegal state aid… Read More Schrödinger’s Investment: the EU’s General Court Considers that the Compensation Ordered by the Micula Tribunal is Not a Form of State Aid (Although it Might as Well Have Been)
by Adam Marios Paschalidis (NautaDutilh) Recalibrating the European Union – International Arbitration Interface Introduction The 2018 Annual EFILA Lecture by Prof. George A. Bermann (Columbia University School of Law), continues the successful Annual EFILA Lectures series, which were previously delivered by Sophie Nappert (2015), Johnny Veeder (2016) and Sir Christopher Greenwood (2017). Before giving the… Read More Report on the 4th Annual EFILA Lecture delivered by Prof. George A. Bermann (Columbia University New York, School of Law), Brussels 25 October 2018
by Artemis Malliaropoulou* “The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1953 The wording of the European Commission Public Consultation Paper on modalities for investment protection and ISDS in TTIP signals, among other questions, the necessity to conduct further research and… Read More Legitimate expectations in the TTIP proposal, in CETA, in EU law and in international investment law: a paradigm of Heraclitean hidden harmony?
Given the present debate surrounding the investment and EU law community (enhanced by the Brexit, the TTIP or CETA negotiations), the EFILA Blog editorial board believes that a veritable dialogue must take place, allowing all arguments to be heard and all diverging positions to be defended. Therefore, The EFILA Blog editorial board welcomes any contribution that pertains… Read More Call for Contributions: EFILA Blog
by Horia Ciurtin LL.M., Managing Editor of the EFILA Blog* The Geo-Economic ‘Great Game’ and Its Symbolic Requirements The Commission’s endless troubles with intra-EU investment treaties appears as a benchmark for its ability to develop a coherent trade and investment policy. Every single state and non-state stakeholder across the globalized agora is closely watching the manner… Read More Intra-EU BITs in a Fragile Union: On Non-Papers and Other (Legal) Demons
Rimantas Daujotas, Motieka & Audzevicius PLP* As it was recently announced, Slovakia has succeeded in referring the legality of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties to the European Court of Justice, as part of its bid to stop Dutch insurer Achmea from enforcing a €22 million UNCITRAL award. In a decision on 3 March 2016, Germany’s Federal Court… Read More The Helping Hand of the MFN for the Intra-EU Bilateral Investment Treaties