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.
9-Nov-2007
FWI
A group of Dutch farmers is one step closer to gaining compensation for land and farms lost to the government of Zimbabwe, after a recent hearing in Paris.
31-Oct-2007
Globe and Mail
A Chicago couple is launching a challenge under the North American Free Trade Agreement after they lost money when the Canadian government opted to tax income trusts last year.
13-Oct-2007
AllAfrica.com
The last remaining white commercial farmers have appealed to the regional Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Tribunal in an effort to stop government from expropriating their properties.
12-Oct-2007
Dow Jones
Facing a flood of unfavorable arbitration rulings, Argentina is shifting from a legal strategy to a diplomatic one in a bid to dismiss billions of dollars in foreign investor claims arising from its 2002 financial crisis.
3-Oct-2007
CNN
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington DC has awarded Sempra Energy approximately $172 million, including interest, to settle a 2002 dispute involving the company’s 43-percent ownership in two Argentine natural gas holding companies, Sodigas Pampeana and Sodigas Sur.
13-Sep-2007
Daily Times
Pakistan and United States on Wednesday constituted sub-groups of high officials from both the countries to pave the way for early finalisation of issues regarding trade and economic cooperation
11-Sep-2007
Channel News Asia
With rapid growth in the Asian economies, it is inevitable that legal issues and disputes to matters like investment treaties will arise as more and more parties enter into cross-border contracts and agreements.
24-Aug-2007
Polaris Institute
French media and telecoms group Vivendi said on Tuesday it had been awarded $105 million in compensation at the end of a decade-long dispute with Argentinian authorities about a former water concession.
19-Aug-2007
PDI
The World Bank has dismissed the claim for compensation from the Philippine government over the Naia Terminal 3 project of Germany’s Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport)
17-Aug-2007
The Guardian
Tanzania was glad to secure the services of a British-led consortium to run the newly privatised water system in its capital Dar es Salaam. But then the price of water started to rise
5-Jul-2007
With Seoul and Washington concluding their renegotiation of the Korea-US free trade agreement (FTA), it has been confirmed there were some ‘‘unfair parts’’ added to the economic deal under which investors of both sides are not treated equally in their respective countries.
25-Jun-2007
A little known entity closely affiliated with the World Bank that mediates disputes between sovereign nations and foreign investors appears to be skewed toward corporations in Northern countries, according to an IPS review of pending cases and other independent analyses of the tribunals.
15-Jun-2007
A seven-year legal battle by the US postal carrier United Parcel Service of America (UPS) against Canada, brought under a controversial free trade agreement, has been dismissed, but advocacy groups say a provision that allows corporations to sue for lost profits should be permanently dropped.
14-Jun-2007
A landmark NAFTA decision this week dismissing allegations that Canada Post is competing unfairly has significantly restricted the rights of foreign investors to elbow their way into markets served by Crown corporations and other government enterprises.
12-Jun-2007
Ecuador is furiously lobbying members of Congress to extend trade preferences, set to run out at the end of the month, that are intended to counter narcotics trafficking.
23-May-2007
CCPA
Table of all disputes and their status as of 1 March 2007
17-May-2007
Jakarta Post
MNCs can always refer to Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to which Indonesia is a party and use the "umbrella clause" in the BIT to transform a problem that was originally a contractual dispute into an international investment dispute.
11-May-2007
A recently spawned legal battle between Slovakia and Madeta, the Czech Republic’s largest dairy processor, has led to a discovery that, for the past 10 years, Slovakia has not honored a trade agreement signed between the countries during the Velvet Divorce.
9-May-2007
ITN
Investment Treaty News has learned that Bolivia has sent a formal notice to the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) declaring its withdrawal from the ICSID convention.
4-May-2007
IPS
How the World Bank’s investment court, free trade agreements, and bilateral investment treaties have unleashed a new era of corporate power and what to do about tt
