On 16 May, 2017 the European Court of Justice (the Court) rendered its Opinion on the competence of the European Union to conclude the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore. The Opinion recognises exclusive EU competence over most of the agreement and largely settles a long-standing dispute between the Commission and the Member States on … Read more
In an award dated 9 March 2017, the Tribunal in an ICSID arbitration between Korean investor Ansung Housing Co., Ltd and China dismissed all claims as time-barred. The Claimant's attempt to circumvent the limitation period by relying on the most favoured nation (MFN) clause did not succeed. The Tribunal came to this conclusion at an … Read more
The Government of India says it has sent notices to terminate bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with 58 countries, including 22 EU countries. It has been reported that many of these BITs will cease to apply to new investments from as early as April 2017. The BIT between India and The Netherlands (which had been a … Read more
In an opinion issued on 21 December 2016, EU Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston QC has concluded that the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) will need to be finalised by the European Union and the Member States acting jointly, i.e. entered into by the EU and all of its Member States (as a so-called "mixed agreement"), … Read more
As previously noted in April 2015, India amended its model bilateral investment treaty (the Indian Model BIT) and has reportedly been deploying it in recent months to seek to re-negotiate bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with over 47 countries (see previous post of July 2016). One of these negotiations was with Brazil, a country historically known … Read more
As discussed in our blog post here, the TPP is a major free trade agreement between twelve countries in the Asia Pacific and the Americas that has been under negotiation for over four years. These twelve countries are the USA; Canada; Japan; Australia; New Zealand; Singapore; Vietnam; Malaysia; Chile; Peru; Mexico; and Brunei. On 24 … Read more
On 25 March the 20 January 2015 working draft of the Investment Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was posted on Wikileaks. (There may be later drafts not yet publicly available, but this is the best guide yet to what is coming.) As discussed in our earlier article here, the investment protection and Investor-State dispute … Read more
In two separate recent developments, South Korea and its trade partners under international free trade agreements have agreed panels of default arbitrators available to hear disputes arising under the agreements. The South Korean Government has announced a list of default arbitrators (to be appointed in circumstances where the parties to the dispute are unable to … Read more
With the increase of global commerce, it also becomes increasingly important to provide for effective and quick dispute resolution mechanisms across state borders. A number of developments in international law recognise this trend and seek to address it. These developments include: The inclusion of Investor-State Dispute Resolution mechanisms in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the … Read more
