ICSID
Earlier last month, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry declared null and void the Reko Diq gold and copper mine agreement, the Chagai Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement (CHEJVA), with Tethyan Copper Company (TCC).
The Supreme Court recently declared void and illegal a mining deal for the Reko Diq copper project signed 20 years ago between the Balochistan government and international mining companies.
A few days ago, ICSID published an award rendered last December 12, 2012 ruling on a claim filed by a Canadian mining company, Vanessa Ventures against Venezuela in 2004.
It is wonderful that the stance of the government of Balochistan has been upheld by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan. Decision given on 7th January, 2013 by the SC has declared the agreement on Reko Diq signed on July 23, 1993 as void and in conflict with the laws of the country. Tethyan Copper Company Pvt Limited (TCC) also lost its case in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on December 13, 2012.
It is quite common in investment arbitration for the respondent state to include in its defense to treaty claims one or more criticisms of the investor’s underlying conduct.
Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said on Tuesday it had begun to seek World Bank arbitration over Bolivia’s expropriation of its transmission business TDE.
Recent disputes, including the GMR-Maldives government row and the clash between foreign telecom firms Telenor, Sistema, Etisalat and Vodafone and the Indian government, have exposed India’s vulnerable position in investment agreements. While the foreign telecom companies can use a potent weapon - the ’investment protection’ clause in bilateral treaties - against India, GMR cannot do the same with Maldives.
The World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes has handed down a ruling against the Ecuadorian government, finding that it “unlawfully expropriated” U.S. firm Burlington Resources’ investments in two oil blocks.
Argentina faces 42 claims at the World Bank’s ICSID in which the plaintiffs are demanding compensations for almost 65 billion dollars, revealed Eduardo Barcesat legal advisor to the Argentine Treasury and one of several lawyers who has defended the country in those litigations.
During a public hearing, a member of parliament, Claudio Lozano made the request to follow in the footsteps of countries such as China, India and Brazil, all countries that have not ratified bilateral investment treaties.
Ecuador officially announced on 8 October 2012 that it will request the annulment of the recent decision of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) which was communicated on 5 October 2012 (ICSID Decision ARB/06/11).
On 5 June 2012 the arbitral tribunal of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) adopted the decision on the case initiated by Caratube International Oil Company LLP (CIOC) against the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In a May 31 press release, the US private equity fund Lone Star said it was planning to request investor state dispute (ISD) arbitration for losses suffered due to "unlawful" interference by the South Korean government.
Churchill Mining (LON:CHL) said it has now filed for international arbitration in its dispute regarding the East Kutai coal project (EKCP) in Indonesia, 75 per cent owned by Churchill.
As long as States, like Argentina and many others, accumulate a large amount of cases against them or obtain sistematically wrong results before ICSID arbitrators — which is the rule, with a very few exceptions — it is possible that the list of ICSID withdrawals will increase in the Americas.
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner questioned US president Barack Obama’s recent decision to suspend trade benefits for Argentina, while complaining that “we can’t even manage to get one of our lemons to enter the US market.”
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday he was suspending trade benefits for Argentina because of the South American country’s failure to pay more than $300 million in compensation awards in two disputes involving American investors.
The United States could soon suspend trade benefits for Argentina because of that country’s failure to pay awards in two long-running investment disputes with U.S. companies, a U.S. trade official said on Monday.
African governments once rushed into signing bilateral investment treaties to encourage FDI. Lawyers are now calling for new models.
Argentina has never threatened to quit ICSID. Its government insists it is open to honouring the awards. The only delay, it says, is that the claimants have not brought their rulings to a local court for collection.
