Mealey's International Arbitration : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's International Arbitration

May 10, 2024
ICSID Declines To Suspend Gas Investor’s $1B NAFTA Claim Pending USMCA Rulings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 9 published a tribunal’s order denying Canada’s request that it suspend a U.S. liquid natural gas (LNG) investor’s claims for $1 billion in damages under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) pending a separate tribunal’s decision on the applicability of the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during a transition period between the treaties.
May 08, 2024
ICSID Publishes 61M Euro Award Against Bulgaria For Energy Contract Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 7 published a tribunal’s award against the Republic of Bulgaria for more than 61 million euros after finding that it breached the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and harmed a Maltese solar power investor by reducing incentives for solar investment upon which the investor had relied.
May 07, 2024
ICSID Publishes Split Tribunal’s Award Rejecting $3.3B Claim Against Romania

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 6 published a split tribunal’s award rejecting Canadian and British investors’ claims against Romania for harming their investment in gold and silver mining by denying them environmental permits that were needed to open the mine and instead moving to preserve the mine as a cultural heritage site and ordered the investors to pay Romania more than $10 million in attorney fees and arbitration costs.
May 06, 2024
Swiss Company Urges D.C. Circuit To Uphold $13M Award Against Equatorial Guinea

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Swiss hospital management company on May 3 filed an appellee brief to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals urging it to reject arguments by the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (EG) that a $13 million award for breach of contract was improper and should have been litigated in local courts, writing that the parties agreed to delegate arbitrability to the tribunal.
May 06, 2024
Judge Denies Dismissal To Insolvent Insurer’s Owners, Cites ‘Perfunctory Argument’

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge denied a motion filed by the owners of an insolvent insurer seeking to dismiss a petition to confirm an arbitration award for a Dutch insurer in liquidation, finding that the owners’ new argument on appeal that the award is prohibited as a monetary penalty fails because “it is not the court’s job to undertake the analysis and legal research needed to support a perfunctory argument.”
May 03, 2024
D.C. Circuit Urged To Defer To Dutch Rulings Upholding $57B Awards Against Russia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The former majority shareholders of Yukos Oil Co. filed an appellee brief arguing that the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should disregard the Russian Federation’s arguments for reversal of the confirmation of arbitral awards against it worth more than $57 billion for lack of jurisdiction, writing that Dutch courts with primary jurisdiction have already upheld the award.
May 02, 2024
Judge Confirms $300K Cashew Arbitral Award Against African Company

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted a California company’s petition to confirm an arbitral award in its favor worth nearly $300,000 for a dispute over the nondelivery of a cashew shipment after the African company against whom the award was issued failed to appear in court.
May 02, 2024
Judge Won’t Reconsider Confirming Sanctions Award In Telecommunications Row

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on May 1 denied a motion for reconsideration of his ruling confirming a partial final award against the majority shareholders of a Latin American telecommunications company that are engaged in a dispute over minority shareholders seeking to force a sale of the company, writing that “It is long since time” the majority shareholders “recognize that they have lost.”
May 01, 2024
Judge Enters Default Judgment Confirming $2.4B Award Against Iranian Gas Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 30 entered default judgment confirming an arbitral award against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state-owned oil company worth more than $2.4 billion for failure to deliver raw gas after the Iranian company failed to appear for two years.
April 30, 2024
ICSID Tribunal Awards $9.4M Against Colombia For Harming Marine Investment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on April 29 published a tribunal’s award in favor of a Swiss investor and its Colombian subsidiaries, who won $9.4 million in damages against the Republic of Colombia after Colombia barred them from charging tariffs to companies and coal exporters using a channel at a port the claimants had constructed.
April 29, 2024
U.S. Citizen Sues Armenia For Costs, Fees Awarded By ICSID After Annulment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California resident filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court seeking to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee’s decision annulling an arbitral award dismissing his claims for lack of jurisdiction and ordering the Republic of Armenia to pay him nearly $440,000, including $150,000 in attorney fees.
April 26, 2024
Judge Bars Double Recovery To Award-Creditor As Venezuelan Oil Share Auction Looms

WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware on April 25 issued an order granting a special master’s motion to clarify judgments that will be enforced at a planned auction of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company’s assets, in which creditors will seek to enforce an estimated $24 billion in judgments, writing that companies that have partly enforced judgments for the same damages will not “receive a double recovery.”
April 26, 2024
ICSID Orders Spain To Pay 700,000 Euros In Attorney Fees, Won’t Annul Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee denied the Kingdom of Spain’s application to annul an award against it for more than 30 million euros for harming the investments of two hydro and wind energy investors and ordered Spain to pay the investors nearly 700,000 euros in attorney fees.
April 24, 2024
ICSID Rejects U.S. Companies’ $31M Cap-And-Trade NAFTA Claim Against Canada

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published an arbitral tribunal’s award dismissing for lack of jurisdiction all claims brought by Koch Industries Inc. (KI) and its subsidiary against the government of Canada after finding that the claimants’ cap-and-trade purchases were not a protected investment under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
April 23, 2024
Judge Awards Dutch Shipper $10,000 In Attorney Fees, Citing ‘Vexatious Tactics’

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on April 22 granted a Dutch shipbroker’s motion for an award of attorney fees incurred litigating a Maine company’s “frivolous and bad-faith” post-award motions, which the court concluded were intended to delay enforcement of an award worth more than $633,000 for violation of a maritime contract.
April 22, 2024
Chilean Contractor Says Quasi In Rem Action Proper To Enforce $140M Award

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Chilean contractor in an April 19 brief in Delaware federal court opposes an Italy-based multinational construction company’s motion to dismiss its petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $140 million for a hospital construction contract dispute, writing that the Italian’s company’s assets in Delaware make it subject to the court’s jurisdiction.
April 22, 2024
Split Panel Upholds Russia’s Challenges To Arbitrators In Ukrainian Vessel Dispute

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Two members resigned from a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal hearing arbitral claims brought against the Russian Federation by Ukraine for the 2018 detention of three Ukrainian vessels and 24 servicemen after a split panel upheld challenges against them for lack of impartiality after they signed an international law association’s declaration condemning Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.
April 22, 2024
11th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Cruise Worker’s Petition To Vacate Award

MIAMI — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the denial of a cruise worker’s petition to vacate an arbitral award rejecting his claims against his employer for negligence in connection with a sound speaker falling onto his foot, holding that the trial court lacked the power to vacate the award as it is not the primary jurisdiction in which the award was issued.
April 16, 2024
COMMENTARY: Interview: Carly Miller And David W. Owen Of Bradley Discuss Discovery And Third-Party Funding In International Arbitration

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April 15, 2024
COMMENTARY: AI In Dispute Resolution – Can AI Replace Human Judges, Lawyers And Experts?

By Nikki Coles and Lucia Yau
April 02, 2024
COMMENTARY: Abu Dhabi’s Global Vision For Arbitration Comes To Fruition With Opening Of ArbitrateAD

By Antonia Birt, Laura Adams and Avinash Poorooye
April 19, 2024
Investors Say Peru Has No Defense To Enforcement Of $108M Land Bond Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two U.S. investment entities filed a brief opposing the Republic of Peru’s motion to dismiss their petition to confirm an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award in their favor worth more than $108 million issued in relation to a decades-old land bond dispute, writing that Peru has no legal basis for opposition and is trying “to rewrite the history of its unlawful conduct.”
April 18, 2024
Judge Denies Motion To Compel, Stays Saudi Contract Dispute Pending Arbitration

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge on April 17 denied a Florida company’s motion to compel arbitration after vacating his order granting the motion, but stayed contract dispute litigation brought against it by a Connecticut company over delivery of hazmat supplies to a Saudi Arabian entity pending the outcome of arbitration, citing his prior finding that the parties entered into a binding arbitration agreement.
April 18, 2024
ICSID Tribunal Won’t Bifurcate German Shipper’s Claim Against Albania

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on April 17 published a tribunal’s order denying the Republic of Albania’s request to bifurcate a claim brought against it by a German shipping company for harming its investment in operating a terminal at the Port of Durres.
April 18, 2024
English Panel Upholds Stay In Dispute Over Which Reinsurance Agreement Controls

LONDON — Upholding the stay of an English case in a reinsurance dispute and saying “the parties began by playing cricket but then switched to baseball,” a three-justice panel of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales agreed with a lower court that the operative agreement calls for arbitration in New York.