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.
17-Mar-2007
The New Anatolian
Dutch investment company Saba Fakes, who claim to hold the biggest part of shares of Turkey’s second big GSM operator Telsim, is preparing to file an arbitration case at International Arbitration amounting to 19 billion dollars in reparations.
14-Mar-2007
On the morning of Tuesday, March 13, Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) filed its Notice of Intent to Submit Claims to international arbitration against the Republic of Guatemala under the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
16-Feb-2007
Mining MX
A foreign mining company is suing the South African government over alleged expropriation of its mineral rights in a move that has huge implications for the country’s new mining dispensation.
18-Dec-2006
FPIF
The investment rules in the Colombia and Peru trade pacts with the US deserve special scrutiny. They grant protections for private foreign investors that are virtually identical to those in NAFTA, CAFTA and myriad bilateral investment treaties signed over the past two decades. And yet these countries are being pulled on board at a time of a dramatic awakening about these rules’ potential for harm.
28-Oct-2006
Legal Week
A number of African governments have made efforts to encourage investment in the continent by entering into bilateral investment treaties and adopting arbitration legislation.
10-Oct-2006
Easy Bourse
US-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) has dropped a compensation claim against Ecuador’s state oil company Petroecuador in a move that analysts said may strengthen the oil firm’s case against the government.
27-Sep-2006
South Centre
One of the issues that has recently started
to influence the negotiations for new investment agreements involves the question of the status of IP
rights and the impact of investment agreements on the rights, obligations and regulatory discretions of
countries under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the
World Trade Organization (WTO).
21-Sep-2006
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has ruled in favor of the State of Hungary in a case brought against it by Norwegian telco Telenor, business daily Világgazdaság reported on Monday.
15-Sep-2006
Mining company Oxus Gold PLC said it is seeking an arbitration order to protect its investments in Kyrgyzstan, following the government-sponsored seizure of premises owned by Talas Gold Mining Co, Oxus’ joint venture company at Jerooy. Oxus said that representatives of Jerooyaltyn, a recently created joint venture between Kyrgyzaltyn and Global G.o.l.d, and local police forcibly took possession of the building on Thursday in direct contravention of the UK-Kyrgyz Bilateral Investment Treaty and Kyrgyz law.
11-Sep-2006
Ecuadorian President Alfredo Palacio has rejected arbitration against his nation for annulling in May the contract with US Oxy oil company that operated there.
3-Sep-2006
Proposals tabled by the Vienna-based UNCITRAL Secretariat could make it more difficult for observers to discover and monitor international arbitrations taking place under the UNCITRAL rules.
30-Aug-2006
The Philippines and Japan have agreed to settle all disputes domestically under the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement unless the Secretaries of Trade of both countries agree to bring the dispute to an international arbitration court.
24-Aug-2006
An international arbitration court has rejected a request by Occidental Petroleum Corp. to stop Ecuador from seizing its assets in the Andean country, a government official said on Tuesday.
15-Aug-2006
Former Enron Corp. (ENE) water unit Azurix Corp. has been awarded $165 million against Argentina in the latest ruling on dozens of international arbitration claims brought against the country by foreign companies.
A person familiar with the situation confirmed Tuesday that both parties were informed Monday of the decision by a tribunal at the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, or the ICSID.
9-Aug-2006
"We are learning new things while we’re negotiating with the American representatives," said a Korean official who was part of the labor section negotiation team during the first round of the Korea-U.S. FTA talks, held in Washington last June. "The U.S. is demanding the introduction of a so-called ’public communication system,’ which was a term that we heard for the first time," the negotiator told Hankyoreh.
31-Jul-2006
The outcome of Occidental Petroleum’s latest dispute with Ecuador will be an important test of the effectiveness of BITs in protecting overseas investor rights in volatile political climates.
31-Jul-2006
Vannessa Ventures Ltd. (the "Company") has an arbitral claim being heard in accordance with the rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, D.C. where Vannessa is requesting remedies under the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Venezuela and Canada.
25-Jul-2006
Business Day
A group of 11 dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers of Dutch origin are poised to take their case for compensation in respect of confiscated land to an international tribunal.
12-Jul-2006
FT
The Kremlin will face yet another legal headache on Tuesday over its role in the break-up of Yukos after US attorneys began an arbitration proceeding in Spain on behalf of Spanish investors who were allegedly hurt by the Yukos affair.
15-Jun-2006
Mondaq
It may be advantageous for foreign investors to pursue a claim under a Political Risk insurance policy and allow the insurers to recover subsequently under any applicable investment treaty by way of subrogation.
