Investment Arbitration

Recent Articles

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  21.02.2023

  Europe

  Sun­rise peri­od of the Uni­fied Pat­ent Court to be­gin 1 March

  After the final version of the UPC Rules of Procedure had been adopted and the judges of the UPC had been selected and appointed, the start of the Sunrise Period, originally planned for 1 January 2023, was postponed to 1 March 2023.Reasons for the postponement of the start of the Sunrise PeriodAccording to an "Implementation Roadmap" published on 6 October 2022, the Sunrise Period was originally to start on 1 January 2023 and the UPCA was to enter into force on 1 April 2023. However, this timeline was changed again by a communication of 5 December 2022. According to the new timeline, the Sunrise...

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  13.09.2022

  Europe

  UPC Rules of Pro­ced­ure go in­to force with judg­ments to be made pub­lic

  The entry into force of the Rules of Procedure is part of the final preparations for the United Patent Court (UPC), which is currently expected to start work in early 2023. After the bodies of the UPC were constituted in the course of the year, interviews were held with possible candidates for filling judges' posts and numerous other preparations were made. On 8 July 2022, the Administrative Committee of the UPC met and officially confirmed the locations of the Court of First Instance. The "table of fees", which determines the amount of court fees, was also adopted. Finally, the Administrative...

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  01.08.2022

  England and Wales

  Rus­sia sanc­tions up­date: UK bans new in­vest­ment in­to Rus­sia

  New UK sanctions regulations have come into force imposing the most rigorous restriction on doing business with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The twelfth amendment to the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 aims to “close off revenue streams that the Russian government could leverage” in order to “deepen…sanctions measures” and encourage Russia to “respect international law and the territorial integrity of sovereign nations”. It is now a criminal offence, imprisonable by a maximum term of seven years, for a UK citizen...

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  04.07.2022

  International

  Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals and Re­act­ive Leg­al Lim­it­a­tions Per­vade the Draft Mod­ern­ised En­ergy Charter Treaty

  On 24 June 2022, the 53 Contracting Parties of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a key multilateral treaty protecting cross-border energy investments that was originally concluded in 1991, reached a tentative agreement regarding the modernisation of the ECT and approved a Public Communication explaining the main changes in their agreement-in-principle (the “Communication”). This milestone marks the end of a nearly five-year-long period of discussions and negotiations. The Communication states that “[t]he agreement in principle is without prejudice regarding its final assessment...

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  24.06.2022

  International

  Stock­holm Ar­bit­ra­tion Tribunal Denies Jur­is­dic­tion over In­tra-EU In­vest­ment Dis­pute un­der the En­ergy Charter Treaty

  In a groundbreaking award, dated 16 June 2022, made in Green Power Partners K/S and SCE Solar Don Benito APS v The Kingdom of Spain, a tribunal constituted under the Arbitration Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (“SCC”) unanimously denied its jurisdiction ratione voluntatis over an intra-EU investment dispute arising under the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”), a multilateral treaty that has been ratified by some 50 countries as well as the European Union. This is the first known award to deny jurisdiction on the basis that EU law applies...

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  20.06.2022

  International

  The United States Su­preme Court Re­stricts Dis­cov­ery for In­ter­na­tion­al Ar­bit­ra­tions

  In a landmark decision issued on 13 June 2022,[1] the US Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”), America’s highest court, ruled that the scope of Section 1782 of the United States Code (“U.S.C.”) does not extend to evidence gathering, including discovery, in aid of international arbitrations. The decision creates a level playing field between foreign and domestic arbitrations in the United States and brings much needed clarity in the US courts’ role in relation to foreign arbitrations. Background Pursuant to Section 1782(a) U.S.C., “[t]he district court of the district...

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