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

Mealey's International Arbitration

February 20, 2024
Slovak Republic Tells ICSID U.S. Driller Broke Local Law, Harmed Own Investment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 19 published the Slovak Republic’s rejoinder to a U.S. oil company’s arguments accusing Slovakia of causing its investment more than $568.2 million in damages, in which the nation asserts that the company caused its own misfortunes, not government regulatory agencies.
February 20, 2024
Canada Asks ICSID Tribunal To Bifurcate Natural Gas Investor’s $1B NAFTA Claim

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has published Canada’s request for bifurcation and a U.S. liquid natural gas (LNG) investor’s memorial on jurisdiction and the merits in support of its claim that the government of Canada breached the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and caused it more than $1 billion in damages by rejecting its proposal to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Québec.
February 13, 2024
Judge Says Zimbabwe Is Alter Ego Of State Mining Company In $50M Award Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied a motion to dismiss two Mauritian mining investors’ amended complaint seeking to enforce a judgment recognizing an arbitral award worth more than $50 million against the Republic of Zimbabwe and its state-owned mining company after finding that the two are alter egos.
February 13, 2024
3rd Circuit Affirms Refusal To Compel Arbitration Of Coal Contract Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a federal judge’s refusal to lift a preliminary injunction and compel arbitration as was sought by a group of Indian and Singaporean entities who claimed to have entered into a contract with a Pennsylvania coal company, finding that the parties were not shown to have entered into a binding arbitration agreement.
February 08, 2024
High Court Urged Not To Review Alleged Arbitrator Bias In Oil Award Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An oil investor owned by a Chinese company urges the U.S. Supreme Court in an opposition brief not to grant a U.S. oil company’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the affirmance of an award against it worth more than $392 million in relation to a $1 billion Ecuadorian oil dispute between the parties, denying that there is a circuit split over how to evaluate arbitrator bias claims.
February 08, 2024
Split En Banc 9th Circuit Won’t Review Jurisdiction In $1.3B Indian Award Row

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 6 by majority denied a petition for rehearing en banc of a panel’s ruling reversing the confirmation of an arbitral award worth more than $1.3 billion against an Indian state-owned company, which the panel also refused to rehear, while several judges joined in a dissent stating that the court should correct its precedent on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
February 07, 2024
2nd Circuit Affirms Award Ordering Sale Of Latin American Telecommunications Company

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 6 issued a summary order affirming an International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) award ordering the sale of a Latin American company that builds and maintains telecommunications infrastructure, rejecting the majority shareholders’ arguments that the arbitrators manifestly disregarded the law.
February 07, 2024
Mexican Company Was Properly Served In $536,000 Film Dispute Case, 9th Circuit Says

SAN FRANCISCO — Addressing question of first impression regarding requirements for service of nonresidents under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a Mexican company was properly served and affirmed the confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth more than $536,000 in damages, attorney fees and costs for a film distribution dispute but based on different reasoning than the district court.
February 05, 2024
U.S. Largely Sides With Spain On Intra-EU Arbitration In Brief To D.C. Circuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Without weighing in on the merits of three pending appeals, the United States in a Feb. 2 amicus curiae brief to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals echoed several arguments the Kingdom of Spain has made challenging a district court’s jurisdiction over petitions to confirm arbitral awards against it worth more than 358 million euros, calling the court’s anti-suit injunctions against Spain “a significant affront to a foreign state in contravention of principles of international comity.”
January 31, 2024
D.C. Circuit Confirms Award In Iraqi Port Construction Dispute Worth Nearly $120M

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Jan. 30 confirmed an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth nearly $120 million in favor of a Cypriot construction company against the Republic of Iraq and two government entities after the Iraqi entities failed to respond to the suit, finding no reason not to confirm the award.
January 31, 2024
Bermuda Entities Spar In 2nd Circuit Over Bid To Revive Arbitrator Bias Row

NEW YORK — Arguing in part that “[s]ubject matter jurisdiction could not be clearer,” a Bermuda-based reinsurer urged the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reject a bid to revive a case involving an arbitrator and two reinsurance contracts with a Bermuda-based insurer.
January 30, 2024
5th Circuit Finds No Jurisdiction Over $200M Award For Fatal Explosion On Vessel

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 29 reversed and remanded a federal judge’s ruling denying a Swiss charterer’s motion to dismiss a German shipowner’s petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $200 million for damages incurred when a fatal explosion occurred on the vessel, finding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction.
January 29, 2024
Spain’s Challenge To ICSID Award Stayed In England Pending Related Appeal

LONDON — An English justice delaying ruling on Spain’s application to set aside the High Court of Justice’s registration of an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award against it worth more than 33 million euros pending an appeal on the related issue of whether Spain is bound to an arbitration agreement with a citizen of a European Union state despite EU law prohibiting intra-EU arbitrations.
January 29, 2024
Texas Refinery Manager Gets More Time To Respond To Ecuador In $6M Award Row

HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge granted a Texas company an extension of time to respond to the Republic of Ecuador’s petition to confirm a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s award against it for more than $6 million in attorney fees, which the company was ordered to pay after the tribunal rejected its claims that Ecuador harmed the company’s investment in Ecuador by allegedly interfering with its contracts to manage Ecuadorian refineries.
January 26, 2024
Energy Investor Seeks To Enforce Nearly $129M Award Against Ghana

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ghana-based subsidiary of a Singaporean company filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court seeking to enforce a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s award worth nearly $129 million against The Government of the Republic of Ghana for terminating the company’s gas turbine contract.
January 25, 2024
Split Tribunal Rejects Hydro Investor’s $47M Claims Against Peru

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal rejected a U.S. hydropower investor and its subsidiary’s claims for more than $47 million in damages against the Republic of Peru for harming its investment but ordered Peru to return a $5 million performance bond.
January 25, 2024
ICSID Tribunal Dismisses U.S. Objections In Ukrainian Money Laundering Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Jan. 25 published its decision dismissing the United States’ preliminary objections to an arbitration claim brought against it by three Ukrainian-owned entities that are seeking to challenge the civil seizure of their real estate investments for involvement in an alleged money laundering scheme.
January 23, 2024
English Judge Applying ‘Novel Approach’ Won’t Set Aside Award Against Zimbabwe

LONDON — An English justice denied the Republic of Zimbabwe’s application to set aside a judgment registering an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award worth more than $125 million against it on sovereign immunity grounds after concluding that “state immunity is irrelevant to applications for registration,” which the justice acknowledged is “a novel approach.”
January 22, 2024
Judge Denies Moldova Relief From $58.6M Judgment After French Court’s Vacatur

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Jan. 19 denied the Republic of Moldova’s motion for relief from the court’s judgments related to a $58.6 million award against it that was vacated in a French court with permission to refile if the ruling is upheld on appeal, writing that he is “inclined” to grant the relief sought by Moldova.
January 22, 2024
ICSID Rejects Latvian Snow Crab Investors’ Claims Against Norway

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Jan. 18 published an arbitral tribunal’s award dismissing all claims brought by Latvian investors in the snow crab industry against the Kingdom of Norway for allegedly harming their investment by banning them from fishing for Norwegian crab and ordered the investors to pay nearly $600,000 in arbitration costs and more than 800,000 euros to Norway in attorney fees.
January 19, 2024
$31M Fuel Delivery Dispute Dismissed After Haiti Pays Judgment In Full

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Jan. 18 entered an order of voluntary dismissal after an award-creditor the same day filed notice of the satisfaction of the court’s more than $31 million judgment enforcing a confirmed arbitral award against the Republic of Haiti (ROH) and one of its agencies for a fuel delivery dispute.
January 19, 2024
Tribunal Says Jurisdiction Not Mooted By Company’s 2nd Claim Against Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s decision rejecting the United Mexican States’ preliminary objection to the tribunal’s jurisdiction based on the fact that a Canadian mining investor launched a second ICSID claim against Mexico related to the same alleged mine expropriation, finding that the arbitrations concern different claims.
January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
January 17, 2024
Brazilian Energy Company Seeks To Confirm $62M Award In Solar Panel Dispute

NEW YORK — A Brazilian energy company on Jan. 16 filed a cross-petition in New York federal court to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $62 million it won in a breach of contract dispute against a Chinese solar panel manufacturer, arguing that the tribunal’s award was proper and there is no reason not to enforce it.
January 10, 2024
D.C. Circuit Asks United States To Weigh In On Intra-EU Arbitration Disputes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel invited the United States to file an amicus curiae brief addressing waivers to sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) as it considers whether European investors can seek enforcement of arbitral awards collectively worth more than 358 million euros against the Kingdom of Spain despite European Union legal rulings barring intra-EU arbitration.