The treaty to end all investment treaties
The Termination Agreement of intra-EU BITs and its effect on sunset clauses
23 member states of the European Union (EU) decided that it was time to fish or cut bait. On 5 May they signed a plurilateral treaty to scrap all intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in force between them (Termination Agreement). The timing may seem suspicious as arguments have been made that certain governmental measures adopted to stem the current Sars-Cov 2 pandemic could violate investment treaties. However, the Termination Agreement …
Alea iacta est?
Post-Achmea investment arbitration in light of recent declarations by EU-member states
Almost a year has passed since the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its ground-breaking judgment– Achmea C-284/16 – concerning the incompatibility of EU law and a Dutch-Slovakian bilateral investment treaty (an intra-EU BIT) (for a discussion see here). While there have been divergent views on the potential scope of Achmea (here restrictively, here more broadly), arbitral tribunals have not yet upheld a jurisdictional challenge by respondent states based …