Mealey's International Arbitration

  • August 15, 2025

    Peru Must Pay $44M For Expropriating Gold Mining Investment, Tribunal Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s award ordering the Republic of Peru to pay a Canadian gold mining investor more than $44 million after finding it liable for expropriation due to its failure to prevent an indigenous community from invading and seizing a gold mine, killing a security guard and exploiting the mine.

  • August 15, 2025

    35M Euro Award Against Spain For Renewable Energy Dispute Confirmed By Judge

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Aug. 14 ordered the entry of final judgment in favor of Luxembourgish and French investors who in 2020 petitioned to confirm an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award in their favor worth more than 35 million euros against the Kingdom of Spain, adopting a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation in full after reviewing supplemental briefing on new precedent.

  • August 15, 2025

    Investors Tell High Court EU Law Doesn’t Affect ICSID Awards Against Spain

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three entities on Aug. 14 filed briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny review of whether federal courts have jurisdiction over petitions to confirm intra-EU awards against the Kingdom of Spain that are unenforceable in the European Union, arguing that the arbitral awards against it were properly issued under Spain’s pre-existing Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) obligations.

  • August 14, 2025

    More Than 28M Euro ICSID Award Against Spain Confirmed By Federal Judge

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Aug. 13 granted summary judgment against the Kingdom of Spain and confirmed an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award against it worth more than 28 million euros plus interest issued in 2019 for regulatory changes that harmed several U.K. entities’ renewable energy investments.

  • August 14, 2025

    Singapore Court Maintains Freeze Of Bioscience Company Assets Pending 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.

  • August 13, 2025

    Judge Confirms $1.2M Arbitral Award For Electronics Purchase Dispute

    MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on Aug. 12 granted a Panamanian entity’s petition to confirm an arbitral award issued by a Panamanian Chamber of Commerce (PCC) tribunal against a Panamanian and Costa Rican company for a dispute over an electronics purchase.

  • August 13, 2025

    Spain Loses Bids To Dismiss 2 ICSID Award Petitions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two District of Columbia federal judges on Aug. 12 issued separate rulings denying the Kingdom of Spain’s motions to dismiss petitions to confirm two International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) awards against it and in favor of EU-based renewable energy investors, with one judge also confirming an award worth more than 60 million euros.

  • August 12, 2025

    Tribunal Says Records Of Qatari Death Sentence Against Investor Not Confidential

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s order in response to the state of Qatar’s request to treat as confidential an arbitration claim brought against it by a French-Algerian investor, writing that it will maintain confidentiality of certain pleadings and memorials but not of any records relating to a death sentence issued in Qatar against the investor.

  • August 12, 2025

    Judge Compels Arbitration Of Dispute Over German Litigation Funding

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge on Aug. 11 granted a third-party litigation and arbitration funder’s motion to compel arbitration of a German entity’s complaint seeking declaratory relief that an arbitration agreement entered into between the parties as part of an agreement to fund litigation against German truck makers is not enforceable.

  • August 12, 2025

    $325M Award Confirmed In Dispute Over Control Of Telecommunications Company

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a petition to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $325 million against majority shareholders of a Latin American telecommunications company in a dispute over control of the company, finding that the arbitration tribunal was permitted to fashion relief not sought by the parties under the applicable arbitration rules.

  • August 11, 2025

    Tribunal Issues New Findings On Requirements Of India-Pakistan Water Treaty

    THE HAGUE, The Netherlands — A Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal on Aug. 8 issued an award explaining the interpretation, application and binding effect of a water treaty between the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of India, writing that the treaty imposes enforceable obligations on India’s design and construction of dams and hydroelectric plants on western rivers despite India’s nonparticipation in the arbitration.

  • August 08, 2025

    U.S. Energy Investor Asks Court To Enforce $732M Award Against Argentina

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. company filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court seeking to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal’s award worth more than $732 million in damages, attorney fees and costs against the Argentine Republic for harming its investments in Argentine electricity generation.

  • August 07, 2025

    Arbitration Agreement In Unsigned Aluminum Contract Is Enforceable, Judge Says

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a U.S. company’s petition to compel arbitration of an aluminum pricing dispute with a Swiss company and denied the Swiss company’s cross-petition to enjoin arbitration, finding that the parties “objectively manifested their mutual assent” to the terms of a draft contract requiring arbitration of such disputes despite not signing the draft or finalizing certain other terms contained in it.

  • August 06, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Remands $57B Petition Against Russia Over Jurisdictional Issue

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 5 vacated and remanded a judge’s denial of the Russian Federation’s motion to dismiss a petition to confirm arbitral awards against it worth more than $57 billion, writing that the court wrongly deferred to the tribunal on a jurisdictional fact that requires independent evaluation by the court.

  • August 04, 2025

    Tribunal Awards $730M To Investor, Rejects Argentina’s Economic Crisis Defense

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Aug. 4 published a tribunal’s award to a U.S. entity for more than $730 million in damages, attorney fees and costs for a 23-year-old claim against the Argentine Republic for harming its investments in Argentine electricity generation plants, with one arbitrator dissenting as to the distribution of arbitration costs and attorney fees.

  • August 01, 2025

    Judge Stays Discovery Application, Instead Compels Arbitration In Argentina

    MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on July 31 granted a motion by two Florida companies to stay an application for discovery assistance filed by an investor seeking to bring criminal charges against the companies and to compel arbitration in Argentina of the dispute related to a purchase agreement between the parties, writing that the court can apply federal arbitration law to a proceeding that began as an ex parte application to obtain evidence.

  • July 28, 2025

    Judge Increases Judgment In Chinese LED Contract Award To $270K

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on July 25 granted a Chinese company’s motion to alter or amend a previously entered judgment confirming a Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SIAC) arbitral award against a Florida company, ordering the award worth more than $252,000 converted to U.S. currency and adding more than $17,000 in prejudgment interest.

  • July 25, 2025

    9th Circuit Urged To Not Order More Briefing In $1.3B Indian Satellite Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — Four entities affiliated with an Indian company that won an arbitral award worth more than $1.3 billion against an Indian state-owned company urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals not to order supplemental briefing on remand after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated an en banc Ninth Circuit ruling finding no jurisdiction over the award-debtor, writing that new arguments would be improper at this stage of the nearly 15-year-old case.

  • July 25, 2025

    Judge Severs Fee Provision In Cruise Company’s Employment Arbitration

    MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on July 24 granted in part and denied in part a cruise company’s motion to compel arbitration of an indigent Nicaraguan employee’s claims related to an injury sustained while aboard the company’s vessel, severing from the agreement fee-splitting provisions that would bar the employee from participating due to his inability to pay.

  • July 24, 2025

    Romania Opposes Mining Investors’ Bid To Revive $3.3B Claim

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published Romania’s countermemorial opposing an annulment application filed by Canadian and British gold and silver mining investors who are challenging a tribunal’s award rejecting their claim against Romania for $3.3 billion in damages and ordering them to pay the nation $10 million in attorney fees and costs, which Romania says was the correct outcome.

  • July 24, 2025

    Judge Confirms Award In Biopharmaceutical Dispute With Hong Kong Company

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted an American biopharmaceutical company’s unopposed petition to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal’s award rejecting claims against the company for violation of a licensing agreement, which did not include any monetary award of damages or fees but resolved the intra-company dispute on the merits.

  • July 23, 2025

    Peruvian Instrumentality Loses Bid To Dismiss $168M Broadband Contract Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on July 22 denied a Peruvian state-owned instrumentality’s motion to dismiss a petition against it to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth more than $168 million for a contract dispute for the abrupt termination of broadband contracts with a Peruvian company, against it.

  • July 23, 2025

    Cruise Rape Claim Can’t Be Arbitrated Under New York Convention, Judge Says

    MIAMI — A Florida federal judge denied a cruise company’s motion to compel arbitration of an employee’s allegations that she was drugged and raped by another employee on a vessel at sea, ruling that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) prohibits arbitration of the dispute under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention).

  • July 22, 2025

    English Appeals Court Reverses Denial Of Korea’s Challenge To $48.5M Award

    LONDON — A panel of the English Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by the Republic of Korea and found that a lower court erred by not permitting it to challenge an arbitration tribunal’s award for lack of jurisdiction over the dispute, finding the court improperly interpreted a treaty governing the arbitration between Korean and a U.S. investor.

  • July 22, 2025

    Bankrupt Turkish Claimant Must Post $2M To Maintain Claim Against Turkmenistan

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on July 21 published a tribunal’s decision granting in part Turkmenistan’s request that a Turkish company accusing the state of impairing its energy investment in violation of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) be required to post security to cover potential arbitration costs and ordered the claimant to post $2 million in security.