bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

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.

Colombia: Environmental defenders criticise ISDS tribunal decision favouring Canadian mining giant
13-Oct-2021 AFTINET
While the tribunal has yet to make a decision about compensation to be paid, Eco Oro Minerals is claiming nearly $700 USD million.
The false hopes and empty promises of investment treaty modernization
13-Oct-2021 The Monitor
A Canadian company’s successful challenge to a precautionary mining ban in Colombia shows how little investor–state dispute panels care about the right to regulate.
Threats, bullying, lawsuits: tobacco industry’s dirty war for the African market
11-Oct-2021 The Guardian
In pursuit of growth in Africa, British American Tobacco and others use intimidatory tactics to attempt to suppress health warnings and regulation, including accusing governments of breaching trade agreements.
New ISDS case map launched (sticky note)
16-Sep-2021
Do international trade and investment agreements generate regulatory chill in public health policymaking? A case study of nutrition and alcohol policy in South Africa
8-Sep-2021 Globalization and Health
Given the potential for wider use of the ISDS mechanism, strategies to protect public health policy space in the context of both international trade and investment treaty and dispute settlement contexts remain important.
Talos Energy files notice with Mexico over disputed oil field
7-Sep-2021 Mexico News Daily
Houston-based Talos Energy intends to fight the decision by the Energy Ministry to designate the state oil company Pemex as the operator of the Zama field, which contains almost 700 million barrels of oil.
Cairn accepts $1 billion refund offer, to drop cases against India within days: CEO
7-Sep-2021 Mint
Cairn Energy will drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the US, within a couple of days of getting a $1 billion refund resulting from the scrapping of a retrospective tax law.
New ISDS case map launched
6-Sep-2021
The map is an interactive tool that brings together 60 significant ISDS cases globally to support social movements, researchers, journalists and policy makers to analyse the impact of the ISDS mechanism.
Examining trade disputes in AfCFTA agreement: The need to engage private sector in Nigeria
2-Sep-2021 Vanguard News Nigeria
AfCFTA roundtable brought together business leaders, academia, government representatives, trade, and legal experts to discuss and deliberate on dispute issues in implementing the agreement in Nigeria.
Companies cannot use ECT to sue governments for climate progress, top court says
2-Sep-2021 Client Earth
Environmental organisations have hailed a court decision that could mean the end of a little-known legal mechanism that poses a massive threat to climate action.
Argentina sued before New York court for debts related to the expropriation of Aerolineas Argentinas
27-Aug-2021 MercoPress
The investment fund Titan Consortium has taken legal steps after the expropriation of Aerolineas Argentinas in 2008, which resulted in an arbitration award against Argentina.
Problematising the relationship between mining, development and foreign investment in Colombia
26-Aug-2021 OpinioJuris
The new resource extraction regime continued to consolidate through the approval of new development plans, new standards, and the signing of international investment agreements.
Kazakhstan would ‘welcome’ new arbitration in Stati dispute
24-Aug-2021 Emerging Europe
Kazakhstan has welcomed what it calls an opportunity for an independent arbitral tribunal to carry out “a free and fair review of the Statis’ fraud”.
One big, expensive, avoidable reason why governments won’t take action on climate change
23-Aug-2021 Rabble.ca
As governments try to phase out coal and leave fossil fuels in the ground, lawsuits from industry investors are starting to pile up around them.
Death by a thousand treaties
20-Aug-2021 The Ecologist
Governments must urgently terminate all international investment treaties in force, in particular the Energy Charter Treaty, and stop negotiating new ones.
NGOs urge Slovenia’s minister to propose EU exit Energy Charter Treaty
19-Aug-2021 Euractiv
Slovenian environmental NGOs have called on infrastructure minister Jernej Vrtovec to use the country’s EU presidency to propose a political discussion on the bloc exiting the Energy Charter Treaty.
Blockading global Green New Deals
19-Aug-2021 The Ecologist
Tackling trade and investment agreements must be an essential step in achieving justice-oriented action on climate change, health inequities and economic injustice.
HSBC initiates legal proceedings against El Salvador claiming breach of treaty with UK
19-Aug-2021 Reuters
HSBC Holdings said the banking group has initiated legal proceedings against El Salvador for what the company called a breach of the nation’s investment treaty with the UK.
Russians warn of arbitration against South Africa
18-Aug-2021 IOL
RUSSIAN attorneys have warned they will institute international arbitration proceedings against South Africa for failing to protect their client Transasia Mineral’s investment after the company was allegedly defrauded of R458 million by a local businessman.
French airport investors make good on earlier threat to bring treaty-based claims against Chile in relation to reduced air traffic during the COVID pandemic
17-Aug-2021 IA Reporter
Two French airport companies, Aeroports de Paris (ADP) and Vinci Airports, have initiated treaty-based arbitration proceedings against Chile, invoking the Chile-France bilateral investment treaty (BIT).