The 43rd of a series of annual lectures in honour of the late Dr FA Mann QC (Hon) (1907-1991) will take place in London on 18 November 2021. This series of lectures is arranged by the Partners of Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and given under the auspices of the British Institute of International and Comparative … Read more

On June 30, 2021, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court) held that President Guillermo Lasso had the power to ratify the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention) without the approval of Ecuador’s National Assembly (the Decision).[1] The Constitutional Court also held that the ratification of the … Read more

Sovereign wealth funds invest across a range of asset classes and engage in capital markets and loan transactions. Their engagement in these activities is consistent with that of any other commercial actor. However, the connection between a sovereign wealth fund and the State by which it has been created raises the question of whether the … Read more

In a recently surfaced judgment, the Malaysian High Court in Government of Malaysia v Nurhima Kiram Fornan & Ors (Originating Summons No. BKI-24NCvC-190/12-2019 (HC2)) for the first time granted an anti-arbitration injunction to restrain foreign arbitration proceedings on the basis of sovereign immunity. Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented level of state action as governments around the world make difficult decisions in response to the spread of the virus. Over the past few months this has resulted in a variety of measures in different countries, including the suspension of contractual rights, social distancing regulations, the requisitioning … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills has helped secure an important victory for the Kingdom of Spain in a long-running investor-state arbitration concerning regulatory changes made by Spain in 2010 to the Feed-in Tariff regulation governing the photovoltaic (“PV”) sector in Spain. Read more

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) has released case statistics for 2019 and updated their records for cases since 1972 (available here). ICSID has historically administered the majority of investor-state claims and these statistics remain an important bellwether for trends in such disputes. The 2019 statistics show that a lower number of … Read more

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s (“UNCITRAL“) Working Group III (Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform) (“WGIII“)​ has published its report (the “Report“) on the work conducted between 14 and 18 October 2019 during its 38th session. The Report provides details about the discussions around three issues in particular: (i) the establishment of an advisory … Read more