INVESTMENT TREATY ARBITRATION

When investing in a foreign country, a business or individual is exposed to a higher level of risk, than with a domestic investment. Investment treaties help to mitigate the risk by providing a forum to resolve an investor’s dispute with a sovereign state, where the state’s measures undermine the investment or treat the investor unfairly.

In recent years, there has been a global trend towards protectionism, resulting in foreign governments asserting their sovereignty more aggressively against foreign investors’ contractual rights. This has resulted in an increase of investor-state disputes.

More than 150 countries have entered into treaties, either bilateral or multilateral, that offer protection to foreign investors against various risk factors. These agreements, known as investment treaties, often allow for international arbitration as a method for settling disputes between the investor and the state in a flexible and efficient manner.

Gherson’s international arbitration team has the experience to advise our clients through the entire lifecycle of an investment arbitration up to and including enforcement of arbitral awards. We represent corporate and private clients across all industries in commercial and investor-state disputes, with particular experience advising on disputes arising from the real estate, energy and infrastructure, aviation and technology sectors.

Gherson’s multilingual, international arbitration experts recognises that the best course is to avoid a dispute before it happens. We work closely with our clients at the pre-investment stage, on the structuring of their cross-border investments, including international investment protection, with the goal of mitigating the risk of future disputes.

Representative experience

• Represented an Eastern European state in ICSID investment arbitration proceedings connected to the alleged expropriation of real estate assets.
• Represented an Eastern European state in six investor-state proceedings administered by the PCA (UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules), connected to the alleged expropriation and violation of the treaty FET standard.
• Represented an UHNW UK national in an ICSID investor-state dispute against an Eastern European State in connection with the expropriation of his banking business.
• Represented several CIS individual investors in investor-state dispute proceedings connected to the alleged expropriation and violation of treaty obligations of the host State.
• Advised an Eastern European national on a potential investment treaty dispute arising out of the alleged expropriation of energy plants.