May 2017 - international litigation blog
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May 2017

May 24, 2017 In Investment Court System By Quentin Decleve

CJEU’s Opinion 2/15: Consequences on ISDS and Investment Court System

On 16 May 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) delivered its long-awaited opinion (the Opinion 2/15) on the allocation of competences between the European Union (the EU) and its Member States for the conclusion of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (the EUSFTA).

As you may know, the core issue in this Opinion was whether the EU had an exclusive competence to conclude the EUSFTA and similar free trade agreements (FTAs) (meaning that the EU could act unilaterally on this issue) or whether the EU shared this competence with the European Member States.

Although the objective of this article is not to provide an in-depth analysis of Opinion 2/15 (for those interested, Van Bael & Bellis recently published a detailed memorandum on this topic), I wanted to share with you some thoughts on the impact of Opinion 2/15 on investor-State dispute resolution and on the Investment Court System (ICS).READ MORE

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May 19, 2017 In International comity, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, State immunity By Quentin Decleve

Belgian Constitutional Court Rules on State Immunity From Execution

In a judgment dated 27 April 2017, the Belgian Constitutional Court (the Constitutional Court) largely confirmed the validity of the Belgian legal provision on State immunity from execution (Article 1412quinquies of the Belgian Judicial Code).

As a general rule, Article 1412quinquies of the Belgian Judicial Code provides that assets located in Belgium that belong to a foreign State are immune from execution and cannot be subject to enforcement proceedings by creditors. As mentioned before, France recently adopted a similar provision which largely mirrors Article 1412quinquies of the Belgian Judicial Code.

Exceptions to that rule are, however, possible if very strict conditions are met: a party wishing to seize the assets belonging to a State needs to obtain a prior authorisation from a judge (juge des saisies). This judge will only authorise the seizure if (i) the foreign State has “expressively” and “specifically” consented to the seizure of the assets; (ii) the foreign State has specifically allocated those assets to the enforcement of the claim which gives rise to the seizure; and (iii) the assets are located in Belgium and are allocated to an economic or commercial activity.

Given the difficulty of meeting those requirements, two entities (NML Capital Limited (NML), an American hedge fund which holds debts securities against Argentina, and Yukos Universal Limited (YUL), an entity that had been granted a multi-billion arbitral award against Russia) initiated legal proceedings before the Constitutional Court seeking the annulment of Article 1412quinquies of the Belgian Judicial Code.READ MORE

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May 10, 2017 In Annulment of arbitral awards By Quentin Decleve

Paris Court of Appeal Endorses “Adverse Inferences” Principle

On 28 February 2017, the Paris Court of Appeal (the Court of Appeal) rendered an interesting decision endorsing the “adverse inferences” principle provided for under Article 9(5) of the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (the IBA Rules): “[i]f a Party fails without satisfactory explanation to produce any Document requested in a Request to Produce […] the Arbitral Tribunal may infer that such document would be adverse to the interests of that Party“.

The dispute at hand arose in the context of a share purchase agreement (the SPA) concluded between Dresser-Rand Group Inc. (the Buyer), a U.S. based company, and twelve Spanish companies (the Sellers) for the purchase of all shares in Grupo Guascor SL.READ MORE

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