Category Archives: International Arbitration

Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – Some Comments

The proliferation of bilateral international investment agreements (IIAs) globally, with their binding Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions, means that investment arbitrations will be an ongoing feature of business relations in many parts of the world. Even if some countries are terminating their IIAs, investment arbitrations will continue, the challenge for governments being to respond to… Read More »

No Peace in the Trade Valley

Peace in the Trade Valley-FP Comment 13 Aug 2020 This is a comment in the Financial Post, 13 August 2020, explaining how privately-driven trade disputes (like dumping and subsidy complaints) will continue even if Washington and Beijing conclude some kind of trade armistice. The WTO Agreement plus countless investment treaties worldwide allow private parties to… Read More »

Investment Disputes in a Post-Pandemic World

This article is a summary of the state of investment disputes under the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) systems in various treaties to which Canada is party. It looks at current win-loss record for Canada and deals with the phase out of NAFTA investment disputes under the new Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement or CUSMA. While these… Read More »

Canada-US Investment Disputes Coming to End

Here is a commentary in the Globe and Mail, 4 March 2019, on the latest investment dispute panel decision in the Clayton-Bilcon case and the fact that these arbitrations are ending under the new NAFTA – the USMCA or CUSMA as Canada calls it. Overall, Canada has been targeted many more times than Mexico by… Read More »

BC’s Non-Resident Home Purchase Taxes and International Trade

Comments have been made in some quarters about the recently-announced 15% tax imposed by the BC government on non-resident purchases of residential property to the effect the measure might offend Canada’s obligations under the NAFTA. These come as a surprise, since few would have thought that an internal measure like this would even remotely involve… Read More »

Investment Arbitration – Important Developments in Tobacco Litigation

The huge multinational tobacco conglomerate, Philip Morris (PM), was bounced out of court on 14 July 2016, in a highly controversial investment claim against tiny Uruguay, a country with a population of 4.5 million and GDP a fraction of the US$80 billion annual revenues of the US-based tobacco giant (Philip Morris v, Uruguay, Award: http://www.italaw.com/cases/460) Although… Read More »

Canada and Investment Disputes-Tallying the Numbers

Canada Pays Out The federal government just announced that it was paying Mobil Investments and Murphy Oil some $19 million to satisfy a decision of a NAFTA investment arbitration panel last year. The tribunal found that certain guidelines of the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board were discriminatory and thereby breached Canada’s NAFTA obligations. Although the government… Read More »