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Mealey's International Arbitration

  • March 06, 2025

    Investor Sues Colombia For Payment Of $10.5M Award In Nickel Mining Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A British investor filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court to recognize and enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award in its favor worth more than $10.5 million against the Republic of Colombia for harming its nickel mining investment by changing applicable royalty rates, writing that Colombia has paid only a small part of the damages it owes.

  • March 06, 2025

    Judge Confirms $1.7M Award For Submarine Cable Survey Contract Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a Barbadian company’s petition to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award in its favor worth more than $1.5 million against two entities for failure to make required payments under a submarine cable route surveying contract.

  • March 04, 2025

    ICSID Tribunal Rejects Honduras’ Objection To Island City Investors’ $10B Claim

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal rejected the Republic of Honduras’ preliminary objection to a claim brought against it for $10.7 billion in damages by several U.S. companies that invested in a chartered island city in a Honduran special economic zone, finding that the investors were not required under the applicable investment treaty to exhaust local litigation remedies before bringing an arbitration claim.

  • March 04, 2025

    9th Circuit Vacates Confirmation Of Chinese Loan Dispute Award Worth $5.5M

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a ruling enforcing a Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC) award worth approximately $5.5 million against two individuals who allegedly guaranteed a loan that was never properly repaid, writing that the lower court didn’t make proper findings of fact as to the guarantors’ improper notice and forgery defenses.

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Hear Jurisdiction Debated In $1.3B Arbitral Dispute Over Indian Satellite

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral arguments by an Indian company, its shareholders and subsidiary, an Indian state-owned company and the United States in a dispute over reversal on jurisdictional grounds of a $1.3 billion arbitral award, with some justices asking if newly raised arguments, including whether a foreign state is a person for purposes of the due process clause, require remand.

  • March 03, 2025

    High Court Lets Stand Ruling That Nixed Bid To Dismiss Peruvian Lead Injury Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied review of a case in which American companies that operate a lead smelter in Peru sought review of an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that upheld a district court’s refusal to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Catholic clergywomen and Peruvian children who allege they have been injured by the smelter.

  • February 26, 2025

    English Judge Denies Permission To Appeal In Reinsurance Dispute

    LONDON — Saying in part that he doesn’t think an appeal of a final antiarbitration injunction has a “realistic” chance of succeeding, a judge of the High Court of England and Wales denied a reinsurer’s application in a contractual construction case that involves a hierarchy or “confusion” clause; he also weighed in on several disputes regarding costs that the reinsurer will have to pay.

  • February 18, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Don’t Predict The Future, Create It – Arbitration Trends And Projections For 2025

    By Andreas Dracoulis, Fiona Cain and Zainab Al-Qaimi

  • February 24, 2025

    ICSID Tribunal Rejects U.S., U.K. Shipping Companies’ Claims Against Albania

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 21 published a tribunal’s award in which it found jurisdiction over the claims of three out of four shipping companies that had accused Albania of harming their investments in an Albanian port but rejected all claims on the merits, ordering the claimants to pay Albania $370,542.55 and 1,583,512 euros in attorney fees and arbitration costs.

  • February 24, 2025

    Magistrate Says Plaintiffs Didn’t Agree To Arbitrate With Foreign Reinsurers

    NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal magistrate judge recommended remanding a reinsurance dispute to state court, writing that defendant international reinsurers who contended that the suit was removable under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention) failed to establish that the relevant parties entered a binding arbitration agreement.

  • February 20, 2025

    Singapore Court Freezes Bioscience Company’s Assets Pending $830M Arbitration

    SINGAPORE — A judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court granted an ex parte application by a Danish company brought against a Singaporean bioscience company and its founder for a worldwide asset freeze pending arbitration in New York regarding an $830 million dispute over a drug for hypertension and kidney disease.

  • February 20, 2025

    Judge Recognizes $124M English Judgment Against Ukrainian Businessman

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted two U.S. investors’ motion for summary judgment and, applying state law, recognized a judgment of the High Court of England and Wales confirming a London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) award worth more than $124 million against a Ukrainian fruit investor.

  • February 20, 2025

    Court Enters Default Judgment In $13M Albanian Oilfield Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia granted an Australian entity’s motion for default judgment confirming an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth nearly $13 million against Albanian government agencies and an Albanian company for a dispute over the imposition of new taxes on oil sales and production from three oilfields.

  • February 19, 2025

    Judge Grants Liberian Companies’ Motion To Displace Prior Counsel

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a motion by Liberian affiliates of a shipping company under new ownership to displace its prior law firm and order previous counsel to turn over case files to the affiliates’ new counsel in an ongoing row over enforcement of a JAMS arbitral award for a contract dispute with a British Virgin Islands (BVI) investment company.

  • February 19, 2025

    Action To Enforce $21M Award Against Guinea Dismissed For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia judge on Feb. 18 granted the republic of Guinea’s motion to set aside default entered against it and to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction a telecommunications company’s action to enforce an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award worth than $21 million after finding that Guinea was not a party to the underlying arbitration agreement.

  • February 19, 2025

    Latvian Crab Investors Say ICSID Tribunal Spent ‘Insufficient’ Time On Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Latvian businessman and his crab fishing company argue in a memorial to an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee that it is “impossible” the tribunal that rejected their claims against the Kingdom of Norway spent sufficient time adjudicating the matter and that the tribunal improperly applied international law as barring certain allegations involving other states.

  • February 14, 2025

    Magistrate Recommends Denying Guatemala’s Bid To Dismiss Construction Awards

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal magistrate judge on Feb. 13 recommended denying the Republic of Guatemala’s motion to dismiss a petition to confirm three arbitral awards against it for construction disputes with a Guatemalan company, writing that its arguments including that the construction company filed suit under the wrong treaty are all without merit.

  • February 13, 2025

    English Appeals Court Says Russia Estopped From Denying Arbitration Agreement

    LONDON — A panel of the English Court of Appeal on Feb. 12 affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the doctrine of issue estoppel bars the Russian Federation from arguing it is immune from an action to enforce an arbitral award against it worth more than $50 billion because it never agreed to arbitrate, writing that the previous rejection of that argument by an appellate court in the jurisdiction where the award was issued has preclusive effect.

  • February 13, 2025

    United States To Join Arguments Over $1.3B Arbitral Award In Indian Satellite Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 12 granted the United States’ motion for leave to participate in upcoming oral arguments regarding whether the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly reversed a $1.3 billion arbitral award against an Indian state-owned corporation on jurisdictional grounds and allowed a request for divided argument among petitioners in the consolidated cases.

  • February 12, 2025

    Italy’s Sovereign Immunity Defense To Arbitral Awards Not Barred By Precedent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge ordered a bifurcated proceeding in petitions by European solar power investors seeking to enforce arbitral awards against the Italian Republic that are collectively worth more than 24.5 million euros plus interest accruing since 2015, writing that Italy’s sovereign immunity defense is not barred by precedent in part because Italy won applications to set aside the awards in Sweden.

  • February 10, 2025

    Dominican Republic’s Challenges To $43.5M Landfill Award Fail, Magistrate Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal magistrate judge on Feb. 7 recommended denying the Dominican Republic’s petition to vacate an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award worth more than $43.5 million, granting a Jamaican landfill investor’s cross-petition to confirm but denying the investor’s request for attorney fees.

  • February 06, 2025

    Judge Confirms More Than $22M Award Against Libya For Construction Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Feb. 4 granted a Turkish construction company’s motion to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award in its favor worth more than $22 million against the state of Libya for a dispute over construction projects dating back to the 1980s.

  • February 04, 2025

    Nicaragua Can’t Use Email, WhatsApp To Serve Debtors Owing $1.5M In Attorney Fees

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a motion by the Republic of Nicaragua for leave to use alternative service to serve respondents abroad against whom it seeks to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award worth more than $1.5 million in attorney fees for an oil investment arbitration it won, writing that Nicaragua did not prove that such service was warranted.

  • February 03, 2025

    Petition To Vacate Award In Gyroscope Dispute Was Untimely Served, Judge Says

    NEW YORK — In a dispute over a fiber-optic gyroscope license that spawned two separate arbitrations, a New York federal judge granted a motion to dismiss a petition to vacate an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal’s award finding jurisdiction over the dispute after finding that the petition was untimely and improperly served.

  • January 31, 2025

    High Court Review Of Peruvian Lead Smelter Case Is Not Needed, Claimants Say

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Catholic clergywomen and Peruvian children who sued the operators of a lead smelter for injuries have filed an opposition brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should deny a petition for certiorari asking whether Peru’s sovereignty is protected by the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), which the companies say requires all litigation to be conducted in Peru. The respondents contend that “the petitioners cite no decision barring state common-law claims in comparable circumstances” and therefore the lawsuit they filed in Missouri is valid.