In Emergofin B.V. and Velbay Holdings Ltd. v. Ukraine, the Tribunal rejected the claim for moral damages from the outset. It did not treat moral damages as only a question of evidence or valuation; the Tribunal went further and held that the claim fell outside its jurisdiction or, alternatively, was inadmissible.[1] The Award incorporates the […]
State Immunity and ICSID Awards: The UK Supreme Court Joins International Consensus on Enforcement
On 4 March 2026, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (the “Supreme Court”) held in Kingdom of Spain v Infrastructure Services Luxembourg S.À.R.L. and Republic of Zimbabwe v Border Timbers Ltd that Spain and Zimbabwe (the “States”) could not invoke state immunity to resist the registration in England of ICSID awards rendered against them. The […]
Frivolous Claims in Arbitration: ICSID Rule 41(5) and Rule 41
If a Claimant submits a request for arbitration to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), according to Article 36(3) of the ICSID Convention, its request will be registered, and the case will proceed unless the Secretary-General finds, on the basis of the information contained in the request, that the dispute is manifestly […]
Compliance with ICSID Awards
Established under the ICSID Convention, ICSID operates independently of local legal systems, providing an autonomous legal framework for dispute resolution. Compliance with ICSID Awards refers to the obligation of parties to adhere to and satisfy the terms of an ICSID award, typically through payment of monetary damages, specific performance, or other remedies ordered by the […]
Judicial Expropriation in Investor-State Arbitration
Investor-State arbitrations involving unlawful expropriation are often concentrated on acts from a State’s legislative or executive branch. In this configuration, acts such as executive orders or laws are how a State may expropriate foreign investors. In turn, a lesser-known type of expropriation is judicial expropriation, which can be defined as “[t]he taking of contractual and […]




