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.
21-Nov-2011
The Federal Government’s plain packaging laws for cigarettes have now passed both houses of Parliament but are facing their first legal challenge.
9-Nov-2011
The Ministry of Justice submitted a formal opinion strongly recommending caution with regard to the investor-state dispute (ISD) system, a key item of contention with the South Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement.
6-Nov-2011
The main opposition Democratic Party stepped up its public campaign against the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement over the weekend, as the ruling Grand National Party mulled pushing a final vote at a plenary session Wednesday.
5-Nov-2011
Swedish energy giant Vattenfall will take advantage of an "extraordinarily powerful legal tool" now available to the world’s corporations to sue the German government for phasing out nuclear power, it was confirmed this week.
5-Nov-2011
The South Korean government describes the investor-state dispute system (ISD), introduced by the country for 81 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) formed since 1967, as a means of protecting offshore investments by South Koreans. But South Korea has never once sued another country, nor has the government been sued by a foreign investor. The reason was that none of those treaties was with the United States.
7-Oct-2011
Madhyam
This article tries to provide a first brief assessment of the leaked EU negotiation mandate for an investment protecting agreement in the EU free trade agreements with Canada, India and Singapore.
15-Sep-2011
S2B
On Monday 12 September the General Affairs Council approved negotiating mandates for investment
protection chapters in free trade agreements with Canada, India and Singapore.
2-Sep-2011
Bloomberg
Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. energy company, said it won a $96 million judgment against Ecuador in an international arbitration case stemming from a 1990s oil-export dispute with the Latin American nation.
25-Aug-2011
The Conversation
Legislation requiring tobacco products to be in plain packaging was passed by Australia’s House of Representatives last night. This is the first such measure in the world to become law.
12-Aug-2011
Almasry Alyoum
In violation of international agreements, natural gas has not flowed for months across the Sinai desert through the pipeline that connects Israel and Jordan to Egypt. Since former President Hosni Mubarak’s fall in February, political uncertainty and intermittent attacks have halted its delivery.
9-Aug-2011
Reuters
Azurix Corp plans to ask the Obama administration for help in recovering more than $230 million it says it is owned by the government of Argentina. It would be the first time a US company has used the "Section 301" trade law to pressure a foreign government to pay an award decided by an arbitrator in an investment dispute.
4-Aug-2011
Info Justice
Philip Morris asserts that fair and equitable treatment includes a right to a “stable and predictable regulatory framework” as well as rights under treaties in addition to customary international law.
14-Jul-2011
The government of Turkmenistan faces legal action from twenty Turkish construction firms over broken contracts costing them more than $1 billion in losses, a spokesman representing the companies said on Wednesday.
4-Jul-2011
Despite a demand by the European Union (EU), India is unlikely to allow a clause in a proposed trade pact with the bloc that permits an overseas investor to sue a host country at an international dispute settlement agency.
28-Jun-2011
Pacific Rim is suing the Salvadoran government in an international investment court, one of scores of cases in recent years in which frustrated oil, gas and mining investors, using provisions of trade agreements, have sought to recoup losses from mostly developing countries.
28-Jun-2011
Tobacco giant Philip Morris suing the Australian government for introducing plain packaging laws for tobacco should send shockwaves through this country as it seeks a free trade deal involving the US, says an academic critic of the deal.
27-Jun-2011
Canada’s Bear Creek Mining Corp. is threatening a legal challenge
against Peru after its mining rights were revoked in a move that raises
the risk for other resource companies doing business in the
mineral-blessed South American country.
27-Jun-2011
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she won’t be intimidated by big tobacco after Philip Morris launched legal action to try to force the government to back down on introducing plain packaging for cigarettes.
15-Jun-2011
The office of Ecuador’s Attorney General will represent Ecuador in Washington at a June 30 hearing in the arbitration case filed against the Andean country by US oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp.
9-Jun-2011
One of the world’s biggest tobacco companies is launching a claim against Uruguay for considering the country’s legislation commercially damaging to the company. Philip Morris corporation has filed a claim at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank branch.
