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 […]
ICSID Arbitration
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 […]
ICSID Arbitration
ICSID arbitration refers to arbitral proceedings conducted under the aegis of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (the “ICSID Centre”), established by Article 1 of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the “Convention”), which entered into force on 14 October 1966. The Convention provides […]
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or the ICSID, was established under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States ad Nationals of the Other States, also called the Washington or the ICSID Convention,[1] adopted on 18 March 1965, which entered into force “30 days after the date of deposit of […]
ICSID Caseload – Statistics for Fiscal Year 2020
On 14 August 2020, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) published its newest case report, ICSID Caselaw – Statistics (Issue 2020-2), providing data on new cases for the fiscal year 2020 (“FY2020”), i.e., until 30 June 2020.[1] ICSID publishes its reports on ICSID caselaw statistics bi-annually, examining all ICSID cases since the […]
Lost Profits in Investment Arbitration
It is common in investment arbitration that investors seek to recover the profits they claim to have lost as a consequence of one or more internationally wrongful acts perpetrated by a host State of foreign investment. Historically, in assessing damages there has been a distinction between damnum emergens (actual losses) and lucrum cessans (loss of […]
How to File an ICSID Request for Arbitration
The filing of a Request for Arbitration before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute (the “Centre” or the “ICSID”) is a crucial and relatively straightforward step. In 2019, the ICSID Secretary-General received 39 requests for arbitration.[1] Almost all arbitration rules, including the ICSID Arbitral Rules,[2] provide that a party wishing to […]
Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Courts: Moving from Litigation to Arbitration?
The global difficulties caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19), various State measures imposing restrictions on the movement of people, social distancing and complete lockdowns, while necessary to protect health, are inevitably having an impact on litigation in national courts, globally. In certain countries courts have had to limit, or to even entirely close, their operations due […]
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Investment Arbitration
As the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has already impacted over 150 countries worldwide, it is hard to imagine that investment arbitration will not be impacted. While the future remains uncertain, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to violate various protections provided in bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) and may bring rise to claims […]
