EU prolongs Russian sectoral sanctions until July 2016

On 21 December, the Council of the EU announced that the EU's economic sanctions against Russia would be extended until 31 July 2016.   These measures were originally introduced for a one year period in July 2014 and were extended until 31 January 2016 in June 2015 when the EU confirmed that the duration of the … Read more

ICSID issues Practice Notes for Respondents in ICSID Arbitration aimed at helping states avoid investment disputes and demystifying ICSID procedure

ICSID has published Practice Notes for Respondents in ICSID Arbitration (the "Notes"), a 31 page practical guidance note on ICSID arbitration brought under the ICSID Convention or the ICSID Additional Facility Rules. The Notes aim to answer the questions most frequently asked of ICSID by respondent states and investors. In particular, they are intended to … Read more

English High Court orders payment of $100m arbitral peremptory order, denying KRG claim to immunity

Summary In its recent judgment of 20 November 2015, the High Court of England and Wales (the "Court") enforced a US$100m peremptory order made in arbitral proceedings against the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq. The judgment considers a number of interesting questions regarding state immunity as well as the relationship between courts and arbitral proceedings: … Read more

Video post: State immunity and waiver of immunity issues in English law

In this short video in our Observations series, Andrew Cannon, Partner in our International Arbitration and Public International Law practices, considers state immunity issues. Andrew discusses the restrictive doctrine of immunity enshrined in the State Immunity Act 1978 and describes the steps a party should take in dealing with a state to ensure an effective of waiver in respect of … Read more

ICSID tribunal declines jurisdiction on basis of lack of evidence of necessary “control” under BIT and requires claimant to pay 80% of costs of the state

In the ICSID decision of Guardian Fiduciary Trust Ltd f/k/a Capital Conservator Savings & Loan Ltd v Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (ICSID Case No. ARB/12/31) issued on 22 September 2015, the Tribunal declined jurisdiction on the basis that the Claimant failed to establish that it qualified as a national of the Netherlands for the … Read more

New Zealand releases Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) text to the public

New Zealand released the full text of the TPP to the public today 5 November. The text can be found here. We will follow up with further consideration of the investment chapter in due course. For further information, please contact Donald Robertson, Partner, Laurence Shore, Partner, Vanessa Naish, Professional Support Consultant, Hannah Ambrose, Professional Support … Read more

UNCITRAL Transparency Rules applied for the first time in investor-State arbitration

Iberdrola, S.A. and Iberdrola Energia. S.A.U. v. Bolivia (PCA Case No. 2015-05) is the first case to apply the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration ("Rules on Transparency").  On 7 August 2015, the arbitral tribunal issued the first procedural order (available in Spanish only) disclosing the fact that the parties to the arbitration … Read more

ADOPTION DAY UNDER THE IRAN AGREEMENT – US AND EU PUBLISH DETAILS OF CHANGES TO THEIR SANCTIONS REGIMES

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action relating to Iran's nuclear programme (the "JCPOA") officially came into effect on 18 October ("Adoption Day"), requiring all JCPOA participants to make the necessary arrangements and preparations for implementation of their respective JCPOA commitments.  In this briefing, we summarise the most recent steps taken by the US and EU … Read more