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.
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.
23-May-2011
UAE companies that have invested in Egypt may stand to lose millions of dollars as the state runs an investigation into alleged corruption by former government officials who sold land and assets to investors below market prices, lawyers say.
13-May-2011
Damac Properties is to fight the conviction of its chairman on Egyptian corruption charges by filing a case with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the company announced yesterday.
23-Mar-2011
CCPA
Why should a provincial government be punished for doing the right thing?
7-Feb-2011
Radio NZ
A top United States trade official says New Zealand is ready to accept investor-state disputes in the nine-country TransPacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP).
22-Jan-2011
AFP
The United States claimed victory against Canada Friday in a trade dispute over Ottawa’s alleged subsidies for lumber exports to the United States.
16-Jan-2011
Big tobacco is hoping a new multilateral free trade agreement will enable it to sue the Federal Government if Australia introduces plain packaging for cigarettes in mid-2012 as planned.
6-Jan-2011
PRNewswire
The Renco Group has served the Republic of Peru with a "Notice of Intent to Commence an International Arbitration Proceeding" under the US-Peru FTA for the Peruvian government’s alleged failure to remediate soils poisoned by Renco’s mining operations there.
4-Jan-2011
Malaya
The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington DC has vacated or voided its ruling made on Aug. 16, 2007, finding no cause in the complaint of Fraport, a German company, that the Philippine government violated a bilateral treaty with Germany when it voided Fraport’s contract to build and operate Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
18-Dec-2010
EFE
The Ecuadorian government hailed a decision by an International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes arbitration panel, which said it lacked jurisdiction over a lawsuit brought against Quito by US-based Murphy Oil Corporation.
3-Dec-2010
With the upcoming meeting of the Committee on Internal Trade (CIT) ministers in Saskatoon on December 3, a wide cross-section of Canadian civil society groups are urging governments to deny corporations the right to sue the provinces and territories under the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) as requested by a coalition of business groups this week.
30-Nov-2010
Public Citizen
Over $326 million in compensation has already been paid out by governments to mainly US corporations in the 66 NAFTA cases filed to date.
22-Nov-2010
AFP
Uruguay’s Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a constitutional challenge brought by tobacco giant Philip Morris that disputes the tiny South American country’s anti-tobacco laws.
20-Oct-2010
Messenger
On October 15 Georgian law enforcers detained Israeli businessmen offering Deputy Minister of Finance, Avtandil Kharadze USD 7 million for him to convince the Georgian Government not to challenge a decision of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
30-Sep-2010
ICTSD
The US government has called for the creation of a dispute settlement panel under the North American Free Trade Agreement to rule on Mexico’s decision to pursue a complaint about US labelling rules for ‘dolphin safe’ tuna at the WTO rather than under NAFTA.
29-Sep-2010
Market Watch
Gold Reserve’s claim alleges violations of three provisions of the Canada-Venezuela BIT culminating in the effective expropriation of Gold Reserve’s investments in the Brisas gold/copper project and the Choco 5 gold property.
17-Sep-2010
Korea Times
At an UNCTAD workshop held in Xiamen earlier this month, Korea introduced its model for preventing investor-state disputes through aftercare services.
