Pursuant to Article 53 of the ICSID Convention, ICSID awards are binding on the parties and “shall not be subject to any appeal or any other remedy except those provided for in this Convention”. As correctly stated by the ad hoc committee in the Standard Chartered Bank v. Tanzania Electric Supply Company case, this “Article […]
ICSID Arbitration
ICSID Caseload Statistics 2021: ICSID Reports a Record Number of Cases
On 7 February 2022, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) released its Caseload Statistics for 2021 (Issue 2022-1), based on the cases registered or administered by ICSID as of 31 December 2021. As previously noted (see ICSID Caseload Statistics for FY2020), ICSID publishes its reports on ICSID caselaw statistics bi-annually, examining all […]
Expropriation in Investment Arbitration
Expropriation in investment arbitration concerns two notions: (1) each State’s right to exercise sovereignty over its territory and (2) each State’s obligation to respect properties belonging to foreigners. The first means that a State may, in special circumstances, expropriate a foreign investor’s property. The second means that the expropriation of foreign-held properties will only be […]
Fair and Equitable Treatment in Investment Arbitration
Fair and equitable treatment is a prominent standard of protection in investment arbitration disputes, which is present in most bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”).[1] The standard has evolved in post-World War II treaties. The 1948 Havana Charter for an International Trade Organization is said to be the first treaty to include “just and equitable treatment” for […]
Moral Damages in Investment Arbitration
Under public international law, the right to claim moral damages is enshrined in Article 31(2) of the Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts pursuant to which the obligation of a State to make full reparation for the injury by the internationally wrongful act includes “any damage, whether material or moral”. The commentary […]
Denial of Justice in International Arbitration
Denial of justice in international arbitration concerns acts or omissions of a State’s judiciary for which a State may be internationally liable. Although the judiciary is a functionally independent body from a State’s executive and government, it is still a State’s organ. As a result, States may be held internationally liable for the acts and […]
Human Rights Law and Investment Arbitration
Human rights law is relevant in the realm of investment arbitration. This does not come as a surprise: both investors and host States may turn to public international law provisions, including human rights treaties, to reinforce their respective positions or to put forward autonomous claims. While little attention was initially given to human rights law […]
Effective Means Provision in Investment Arbitration
In addition to typical standards of investment protection such as fair and equitable treatment, national treatment or most-favored nation treatment, investment treaties sometimes contain an effective means of asserting claims and enforcing rights provision, commonly known as an “effective means provision“. This provision figures mainly in investment treaties concluded by the USA, such as the […]
MFN Clauses in Investment Arbitration
Most-Favoured-Nation Clauses, or MFN Clauses, figure in the vast majority of investment protection treaties. They are intended to ensure “that a host country extends to the covered foreign investor and its investments, as applicable, treatment that is no less favourable than that which it accords to foreign investors of any third country.”[1] By according such […]