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 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
Prof. Nikos Lavranos & Prof. Loukas Mistelis (Co-Editors in Chief) We are very pleased and proud to present the fifth issue of the European Investment Law and Arbitration Review (EILA Rev) 2020. As of 23 December 2020, all articles of this volume can be ordered online at Brill Publishers: The stormy developments of the past… Read More The Contents of the European Investment Law and Arbitration Review, Vol. 5 (2020)
Prof. Dr. Alexander Reuter * The ECJ’s Achmea and CETA rulings [1]; as well as the entire debate conducted on the issue so far, disregard one legal factor, that is, the binding legal effect of investors’ rights under investment treaties. That factor is, however, at the heart of the matter and decisive. Under EU procedural… Read More Taking Investors’ Rights Seriously: The Achmea and CETA Rulings of the European Court of Justice do Not Bar Intra-EU Investment Arbitration
by Dr. David Pusztai (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP The European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA) held its 5th Annual Conference on 30 January 2020 in London, with a focus on “Investment Arbitration in the EU: Alternatives to Intra-EU BITs”. As the Secretary-General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, Meg… Read More Report on the 5th EFILA Annual Conference held on 30th January 2020 in London
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)
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 Alexandros Catalin Bakos, LL.M I. Introduction: In recent years, a series of debates have emerged in regard to the relationship between the EU State Aid law[1], on the one hand, and obligations arising under Investment Treaties (to which the EU is not a formal party)[2], on the other hand. Those debates manifest themselves at… Read More The Relationship between EU State Aid law and Obligations Arising under Investment Treaties
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