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
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
By Agata Daszko[1] On 27 July 2023, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof or BGH) issued a long-awaited decision (I ZB 43/22, I ZB 74/22 and I ZB 75/22) pertaining to intra-EU arbitration on the basis of the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”). The decision? “Upstream national legal protection is possible against intra-EU investor-State ICSID arbitral… Read More Germany’s Highest Civil Court Affirms “Primacy of Application of Union Law – Also Vis-à-Vis Public International Law” in Intra-EU Investment Arbitration
By Anastasia Choromidou[1] and Mark Konstantinidis[2] In May 2023, an ICSID ad hoc committee contributed the latest episode to the Spanish solar arbitration saga, by rejecting Spain’s arguments based on the CJEU Komstroy ruling on intra-EU arbitration. The BayWa v Spain annulment decision reflects the tense, from a doctrinal and institutional perspective, relationship between EU… Read More BayWa v Spain: No annulment for old objections
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?
By Lili Feher[1] and Sebastian Lukic[2] Introduction In December 2022, the General Court of the EU rendered a set of judgments rejecting claims initiated by Latvian bank PNB Banka for the annulment of prudential measures imposed against it by the European Central Bank (ECB) (see T-275/19, T-301/19, T-330/19 and T-230/20). The cases had attracted attention considering the larger context… Read More Adjudicating actions of EU institutions in ICSID proceedings: A comment on PNB Banka v. Latvia
by Anina Liebkind[1] and Andreas Holst[2] SUMMARY: The Achmea saga reaches the precipice in Sweden with two landmark judgments. In judgments issued a day apart, the Svea Court of Appeal first declares the Novenergia II v. Spain award invalid because the issues in dispute are not arbitrable under Swedish law (Case No. T 4658-18, 13… Read More Landmark Judgments Rendered by Swedish Courts in the Achmea Saga
by Iván Levy[1] Introduction On June 16, 2022, the Tribunal in Green Power Partners K/S & SCE Solar Don Benito APS v. The Kingdom of Spain (Green Power v. Spain) issued its award and became the first tribunal to uphold the so-called intra-EU objection.[2] After a large number of decisions historically rejecting the objection, is… Read More Green Power v. Spain: Intra-EU Game Changer or an Exception that Confirms the Rule?
Alexandros Catalin Bakos, LL. M.* […] but this is not where or how it ends. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds…completely (in-game dialogue from the intro scene of the video game Soul Reaver 2). The EU’s backlash against intra-EU (Bilateral?) Investment Treaties – intra-EU (B)ITs – reached its peak when the CJEU issued… Read More Post-Achmea Energy Charter Treaty Coherence and Stability: Upheld or Hindered?
by Emanuela Matei, Associate Researcher – CELS* Staging the scene In October 2013 the European Commission issued a note entitled ‘Platform for Good Tax Governance: Addressing the remaining cases of double taxation in the single market: means to foster arbitration’ in which it exposed the limitations of the EU Arbitration Convention 90/463/EEC. It affirmed that whenever… Read More The love-hate story of arbitral jurisdiction over claims against states in the EU