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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.

Born’s BAT gets set to fly
15-Jan-2014 Mondaq
A proposal for a new form of international arbitration, with states abandoning sovereign rights to commercial dispute litigation in favor of resolution by arbitration, has provoked wide public interest and is now being drafted into an international model treaty.
Philip Morris, Australia and the fate of Europe’s trade talks
13-Jan-2014 Inside Story
Australia’s clash with Philip Morris over plain packaging has disrupted trade talks between the United States and Europe, reports James Panichi in Brussels
Protecting foreign investments in Sub-Saharan Africa: The SADC and its protocol on finance and investment
9-Jan-2014 Mondaq
The SADC protocol on investment provides rights to investors, including investor-state dispute settlement provisions, in southern Africa no matter what country they hail from. Thus, it goes way beyond typical bilateral investment treaties (BITs) while protecting foreign companies operating in SADC countries without BIT coverage.
Explaining ISDS
8-Jan-2014 FTA Watch
A five-minute video from FTA Watch (Thailand)
A Canadian court is allowing Ecuadorians to pursue their long-running pollution suit against Chevron
4-Jan-2014 Public Radio International
Last month, a judge ruled that the Ecuadorians can pursue their case against Chevron in Canada.
Tribunal pushes back Ecuador, Chevron hearing
4-Jan-2014 Wall St Journal
An international arbitration tribunal in The Hague hearing a claim from Chevron Corp. against Ecuador pushed back a scheduled hearing to Feb. 7 from Jan. 20 and called on both parties to meet in Washington on Jan. 20 instead.
Investment deal? Just watch it
2-Jan-2014 The Hindu Business Line
In the last couple of years, South Africa has become the unlikely champion of the anti-BIT movement.
LPG firm’s investor seeks compensation
28-Dec-2013
A shareholder from the United Kingdom of the company Progas Pakistan has initiated international arbitration proceedings of $573 million against Pakistan for alleged expropriation of its LPG infrastructure in Karachi and the government has decided to vigorously contest the case.
Indigenous groups win right to seize Chevron’s Canadian sssets over $18 billion in Amazon pollution
28-Dec-2013 Democracy Now
A court in Canada has ruled Ecuadorean farmers and fishermen can try to seize the assets of oil giant Chevron based on a 2011 decision in an Ecuadorean court found it liable for nearly three decades of soil and water pollution near oil wells, and said it had ruined the health and livelihoods of people living in nearby areas of the Amazon rainforest.
Open letter of civil society against investor privileges in TTIP
27-Dec-2013 Tlaxcala
Over 100 civil society groups and social movements from Europe and the USA have signed on an open letter that was sent to the chief negotiators of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to voice one joint demand: to exclude any Investor-state Dispute Settlement mechanism from the TTIP
Romania loses major arbitration case
19-Dec-2013 Global Legal Post
In a victory which may have major ramifications for international law, US law firm King & Spalding has won a $250 million arbitration case for Romanian company Micula against the Republic of Romania.
India-UAE BIPPA: Government builds safeguards to protect itself
18-Dec-2013 Economic Times
India has introduced provisions in the just-concluded bilateral investment protection and promotion agreement (BIPPA) with the United Arab Emirates to ensure that only executive decisions can be challenged and that too within a stipulated period.
Is ICSID really good for the Canadian taxpayer?
26-Nov-2013
Most trade lawyers across the country are lauding Canada’s ratification of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention. But they glaze over the serious and far-reaching effects for Canadian public policy.
Ecuador high court upholds Chevron verdict, halves fine
13-Nov-2013 Reuters
Ecuador’s highest court upheld a verdict that US oil company Chevron Corp is responsible for pollution in an Amazon rainforest, but halved the fine imposed in a previous trial to $9.5 billion, a decision the company dismissed as illegitimate.
Harper moves to give up more Canadian sovereignty
12-Nov-2013
Tthe Harper government recently committed Canada to ratify the ICSID Convention.
Israeli investors seek damages from Hungary in international arbitration court
10-Nov-2013
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), in Washington, DC, will hear a case by Israeli investors seeking more than 100 billion forints (EUR 337m) in damages from the state of Hungary because of a failed casino investment, daily Magyar Nemzet said on its website on Saturday.
CETA is more about corporate rights than free trade
9-Nov-2013
Since announcing the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) two weeks ago Harper’s Conservatives have repeatedly labelled those questioning the deal as “anti-trade”. But this Canada-European Union accord is one part trade and four parts ‘corporate bill of rights’.
Govt to cough up Rs90m for ICSID case
8-Nov-2013
The federal government, which is facing financial crisis and seeking loans from IMF and other financial institutes, is willing to pay Rs90 million to a Pakistani law firm to plead its case in an international court.
Argentina settles five outstanding investment treaty arbitration claims in historic break with its anti-enforcement stance
3-Nov-2013
Argentina has agreed to settle five separate investment treaty arbitration claims at a cost of around USD 500 million, in an historic departure from the Latin American state’s refusal to comply with awards made by international investment treaty arbitration bodies.
Canada ratifies World Bank’s ICSID Convention
3-Nov-2013
Canada has confirmed its ratification of the World Bank’s ICSID Convention by depositing its “Instrument of Ratification” with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes on Nov. 1, 2013.