Opting Out of ICSID and BITs: Legal and Economic Effects
The purpose of this article was initially to review the countries that had left ICSID, terminated BITs, or refused to enter into ICSID or to conclude BITs, to determine the reasons and mechanisms behind their decisions, and finally to ascertain whether these decisions made sense from an economic point of view. The focus was in particular on the South American countries and Australia.
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The EU Parliament proposes a regulation for financial responsibility for EU-linked investor-state dispute settlement
This proposed regulation aims at clarifying the division of competence for financial responsibility between the Union and Members States when the Union or a Member State is sued by an non EU-investor in the context of investor-state dispute settlement proceedings. Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, foreign direct investment is included in the EU common commercial policy. Of particular importance is the Parliament’s acknowledgement of the current uncertainty relating to the inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in Treaties negotiated by the EU.
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The Commission’s factsheets: a declaration of faith in the EU BITs world?
The course of this year was marked by another event that ended up to be much ado about nothing, the order granted in the matter Slovakia v. Eureko by the German Federal Supreme Court according to which the proceedings before it were redundant. These proceedings, in which the Commission had intervened to support the position that the arbitral tribunal lacked jurisdiction, had been brought by the Dutch company Eureko against the Slovak Republic under the Dutch-Slovak BIT (thus an intra-EU BIT). The arbitral tribunal held that it had jurisdiction because the BIT was fully valid and had not been terminated by the Slovak Republik’s accession to the EU.
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The Trouble with Salini: Criticism of and Alternatives to the Famous Test
The famous Salini test, commonly used to determine whether an investment exists, has been put under heavy scrutiny by recent arbitral awards. The present article discusses these awards and their consequences, starting with an explanation of the history of the Salini test and the reason why this test was proposed in the first place.
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Latest Developments Concerning European Bilateral Investment Treaties
Two major events have taken place recently regarding the situation of Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between European Member States (“Intra-EU BITs”) and Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between an European Member State and a State not Member of the EU (“Extra-EU BITs”). The fate of these agreements was surrounded up until now by a veil of uncertainty.
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Pakistan Enacts A Statute To Implement The ICSID Convention
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is not foreign to defending investment claims. In order to restore investors’ confidence in its country, the Pakistani government has enacted on April 28, 2011 a law to secure foreign investment. The International Investment Disputes Act (the “Act”) has been qualified by the Pakistani president, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, as “a giant leap forward” to create confidence amongst foreign investors.
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Swiss Bilateral Investment Treaties: A Survey
This article focuses on Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) entered into between Switzerland and foreign countries, and introduces the key provisions contained in BITs, with concrete examples arising out of Swiss BITs. Switzerland has entered into more than one hundred BITs, and, as such, is one of the countries with the most BITs in force.
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