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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.

Minefields in investment relations
10-Jul-2017 Economic & Political Weekly
The Government of India and the Government of Andhra Pradesh are facing an arbitration suit due to the cancellation of bauxite mining approvals in Visakhapatnam. This is the latest in a series of legal actions by foreign investors in the country.
Fumbling towards multilateralism? A first read of the investment text in the Japan-EU FTA
10-Jul-2017 International Economic Law and Policy Blog
The EU and Japan seemed to have scrapped the classic BIT/investor protection architecture as a model.
Philip Morris: Tobacco giant ordered to compensate Australia
10-Jul-2017 BBC
Tobacco giant Philip Morris has been ordered to pay the Australian government millions of dollars after unsuccessfully suing the nation over its world-first plain-packaging laws.
Foreign investment: big slogan and bigger worries
8-Jul-2017 NDTV India
What can India do at the level of trade and diplomacy to deal with RCEP
Rwanda needs its own Bilateral Investment Treaty model
5-Jul-2017 The New Times
If Rwanda clings to BIT approach, its scope should be limited. Alternatively, it can embark on a more attractive investment climate in lieu of BITs.
Can NAFTA be improved? Some activists are hopeful about renegotiation
4-Jul-2017 The Progressive
Regardless of the short-term outcome, the movement for a progressive new NAFTA will hand progressives a dynamic issue—and a mobilized base—in the 2018 and 2020 elections. The current renegotiation could set the stage for future battles, perhaps for deeper change.
Investing in alternative dispute settlement
3-Jul-2017 Madhyam
Governments at the Centre and in the States must urgently invest in building their own capacity to handle the new generation of international investment arbitration.
Gabriel: you can always ask but it doesn’t mean we will let you get it!
3-Jul-2017 Alburnus Maior
With Gabriel Resources seeking US$4.4 billion in damages, Alburnus Maior, a prospective amicus curiae in the arbitration case, announces that it aims to file its brief to the ICSID Tribunal until September 2018 at the latest.
Canada’s Gabriel Resources to seek $4.4 bln in damages from Romania
30-Jun-2017 Reuters
Gabriel Resources Ltd will seek $4.4 billion in damages from Romania for losses related to its long-stalled Rosia Montana gold mine project in a claim that the Canadian miner plans to file with a World Bank Tribunal.
US junks Bilateral Investment Treaty talks
29-Jun-2017 The Hindu
Talks deadlocked on investor dispute settlement.
Six years after the ‘Aymarazo’ protests in Peru
28-Jun-2017 Radio Mundo Real
Criminal charges pending against 18 community leaders and a billion-dollar court case at ICSID.
Brazil’s Cooperation and Facilitation Investment Agreements (CFIA) and recent developments
28-Jun-2017 IISD
Brazil has never approved any BITs nor did it sign the ICSID Convention but it continued to receive significant amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI), consolidating its position as one of the world’s top recipients of FDI
Leaked trade papers expose EU failure to uphold transparency and environment standards
26-Jun-2017 Greenpeace
A leak of documents related to a looming trade deal with Japan (known as JEFTA) has revealed the EU’s failure to live up to improve transparency and uphold environmental standards in trade policy promises.
The 835 reasons not to sign trade and investment agreements
23-Jun-2017 TNI
A democratic decision to regulate a privatised essential service or to return it to public control could potentially trigger international investment arbitration if a country is bound by an international investment treaty.
Chevron Corp. wins court battle against Ecuadorian villagers
23-Jun-2017 Newburgh Gazette
Chevron is victorious after the Supreme Court declined to hear a case made against the company by a NY lawyer representing Ecuadorian villagers.
Phase 2 of IIA reform: Modernizing the existing stock of old-generation treaties
21-Jun-2017 UNCTAD
International investment agreement (IIA) reform has made significant progress.
Venezuela pays Gold Reserve $40 million on $800 million ICSID expropriation judgment
19-Jun-2017 Latin America Herald Tribune
Gold Reserve Inc. reports that it has received a $40 million payment on its $800 million judgment that it won at the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2014.
Community perspectives in investor-state arbitration
16-Jun-2017 IIED
This report examines whether and how investor-state arbitral tribunals consider community perspectives, interests and rights in their settlement of investment disputes.
The shifting landscape of investor-state arbitration: loyalists, reformists, revolutionaries and undecideds
15-Jun-2017 EJIL: Talk!
The investor-state arbitration landscape is shifting under our feet. The utility and legitimacy of traditional investor-state arbitration have come under fire, but states have not converged on a viable alternative.
European free trade deal talks paused over Trudeau’s insistence on investor-state provision
13-Jun-2017 Council of Canadians
The Norwegian government has put a pause on ’free trade’ talks given the Trudeau government’s demand for an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision in the Canada-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) agreement.