This ICC arbitral award concerns the notion of estoppel and a Representation Agreement between the parties, and whether a contract was valid and enforceable despite a United Nations embargo, with respect to a contract under Swiss law. While the contract was being performed, an Iraq embargo was ordered by the United Nations following the invasion […]
Arbitration Clause
Arbitration and World Wide Freezing Orders: U&M Mining Zambia v. Konkola Copper Mines, English High Court (2014)
U&M Mining Zambia Ltd v Konkola Copper Mines Plc [2014] EWHC 3250 (Comm) (10 October 2014) concerns the issuance of world wide freezing orders (“WFO”) against a losing party to an arbitration. By way of background, a dispute had arisen out of a contract entered into by the parties for the provision by U&M Mining […]
IMPREGILO S.P.A. V. ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (ICSID CASE NO. ARB/07/17) – AWARD of 21 June 2011
In 1996, Claimant was awarded a contract for a concession to privatize the water and sewer services of the Province of Buenos Aires. To execute the contract, Claimant incorporated AGBA (an Argentinean company). Under the contract, AGBA acquired the exclusive right to collect, treat, transport, distribute and commercialize water and sewage and, in return, was […]
MALICORP LIMITED V. THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT (ICSID CASE NO. ARB/08/18) – AWARD
The dispute between Malicorp Ltd, an English Company, and the Republic of Egypt, arose out of the allegedly illegal termination of a concession contract amounting to a violation of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Egypt of 1975 (the “BIT”). In 2000, Malicorp was awarded a […]
BURIMI SRL AND EAGLE GAMES SH.A V. REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA (ICSID CASE NO. ARB/11/18) AWARD – 28 May 2013
This ill-fated case was governed by the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments concluded between Italy and the Albania (“BIT”), Albania’s Foreign Investment Law (“FIL”) and the ICSID Convention and Arbitration Rules. In 2004, Eagle Games, a lottery tickets company, applied for a gambling permit from Albania’s Finance Ministry and was awarded a […]
VANNESSA VENTURES LTD. V. THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA (ICSID CASE NO ARB (AF)/04/6) – AWARD 16 January 2013
On 16 January 2013, an Arbitral Tribunal rendered an award dismissing all claims on the merits of the Canadian company Vanessa Ventures Ltd in relation to its investment in a mining project in Venezuela, under a bilateral investment treaty between Canada and Venezuela. At the beginning of the 1990’s, Placer Dome Inc (“PDI”) had contracted […]
OPIC KARIMUM CORPORATION V. THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA (ICSID CASE No. ARB/10/14) – DECISION ON THE PROPOSAL TO DISQUALIFY PROFESSOR PHILIPPE SANDS, ARBITRATOR, MAY 5, 2011
This decision concerns the rejection of a challenge to the arbitrator Professor Phillipe Sands, who had been appointed by Respondent, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The challenge was made by Claimant on the basis that Phillipe Sands had been appointed previously by Respondent, and also previously by Respondent’s counsel, as arbitrator in ICSID and non-ICSID […]
SAINT-GOBAIN PERFORMANCE PLASTICS EUROPE V. THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA (ICSID CASE NO. ARB/12/13) – DECISION ON PROPOSAL TO DISQUALIFY ARBITRATOR of 27 February 2013
On 25 May 2012, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Europe filed a request for arbitration against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for breaches to the Agreement on Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between France and Venezuela of 15 April 2004. After appointment of the arbitrators by each party, Claimant filed for the disqualification of the arbitrator […]
Formal Requirements an Arbitration Award Must Satisfy to Be Enforceable in England and Wales: Anthony Lombard-Knight v Rainstorm [2014] EWCA Civ 356
This case concerns the formal requirements that an arbitration award must satisfy in order to be enforceable in England and Wales under the New York Convention of 1958 and the Arbitration Act 1996. Those instruments require that an arbitration award be duly authenticated or that its copy be duly certified. This case concerns the meaning […]