Mealey's International Arbitration : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's International Arbitration

January 16, 2026
Island City Investors Want Honduras To ‘See Reason’ Or Pay $1.63 Billion

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Jan. 15 published a memorial on the merits by several U.S. companies that invested in a chartered island city in a Honduran special economic zone and are now bringing investment treaty claims against the Republic of Honduras for seeking to terminate their land-use rights, writing that they “would much prefer a constructive dialogue” but otherwise will seek $1.63 billion in compensation.
January 16, 2026
Tribunal Awards $556K For Azerbaijan Ignoring Travel Ban Order

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s interim order awarding U.K. investors more than $556,000 in attorney fees and costs incurred in their unsuccessful attempts to obtain Azerbaijan’s compliance with a prior tribunal order requiring it to lift its travel ban on a dead investor’s son.
January 15, 2026
Tribunal Finds Jurisdiction, Rejects German Investor’s 90M Euro Claim Against China

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Jan. 15 published a tribunal’s award rejecting a German investor’s claim for 90 million euros against the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for violating the Germany-PRC bilateral investment treaty (BIT) by evicting it from state-owned land and demolishing its buildings, writing that a tribunal is not a “municipal zoning” authority.
January 15, 2026
Judge Finds Fraud In Shipping Arbitration, Vacates Award And Issues Sanctions

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge vacated a JAMS arbitral award worth more than $102 million after finding the original award-creditors “purposefully presented false testimony at the arbitration” regarding a dispositive issue in the dispute, issued sanctions against them for failure to comply with discovery orders and ordered them to pay attorney fees, saying their former law firm “crossed” a “line” in the arbitration without finding it “complicit in its clients’ perjury.”
January 14, 2026
Petition To Confirm $146M Award For Chilean Dispute Belongs In Italy, Judge Says

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge dismissed a Chilean contractor’s petition to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $146 million against an Italian construction company that acquired the original award-debtor during a restructuring due to its insolvency, finding that the court lacks personal jurisdiction and that the dispute involves questions of Italian law that can be resolved in Italian courts.
January 13, 2026
Bolivia Properly Served In $253M Mining Award Case, Judge Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied the Plurinational State of Bolivia’s motion to dismiss a Bermudian investor’s petition to confirm an arbitral award in its favor worth more than $253 million in damages caused by Bolivia’s nationalization of tin mining investments, writing that Bolivia was properly served and that jurisdiction over it is proper.
January 13, 2026
Risk Pool Rebuts Reinsurer’s Dissolution Claim In Arbitration Dispute

NEW YORK — An intergovernmental risk pool told a New York federal court that a reinsurer baselessly alleged that it was dissolved without notice when the reinsurer urged the court to rule on pending cross-petitions in an arbitration awards dispute involving attorney fees and whether there was a probability or a possibility of an excess judgment in an underlying case.
January 13, 2026
Venezuela, Bidders Tell 3rd Circuit Conflicts Doom $5.8B Auction Approval Order

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its affiliates, along with unsuccessful bidders for its assets at an auction in Delaware federal court to enforce arbitral awards and bond debts, filed appellant briefs in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the lower court’s order approving a more than $5.8 billion bid for Venezuela’s oil holdings in the United States was flawed and conflicted.
January 12, 2026
High Court Won’t Review Jurisdiction Over $57B Award Against Russia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 denied the Russian Federation’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on jurisdiction over a petition by former oil company shareholders to confirm arbitral awards against Russian worth more than $57 billion, in which Russia argued that the Circuit Court did not properly apply the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to the question of whether an arbitration agreement existed.
January 12, 2026
Split Tribunal Finds No Jurisdiction Over Casino Claims Against Ecuador

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A split tribunal hearing a $152 million claim brought by two dual Ecuadorian-Italian nationals against the Republic of Ecuador for harming their casino investments by banning gambling dismissed the claims due to lack of jurisdiction after finding that the claimants’ dominant nationality is Ecuadorian; the dissenting arbitrator said this nationality test was “erroneously inserted.”
January 09, 2026
5th Circuit Affirms Refusal To Compel Arbitration Of Hurricane Insurance Dispute

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a federal judge’s denial of a motion by a group of domestic insurers to compel arbitration pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention), as codified in Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., finding that state law prohibits arbitration of such disputes.
January 07, 2026
Tribunal Refuses To Dismiss $11M Expropriation Claim Against Türkiye

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s order denying the Republic of Türkiye’s application for a quick dismissal of a Maltese investor’s $11 million claim against it for allegedly expropriating its investments in assets, including a renewable energy power plant, rebuffing Türkiye ’s arguments that the claims are manifestly without merit.
January 07, 2026
Italian Company Tells High Court LNG Contract Claims Were Improperly Precluded

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Italian energy company filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it was deprived of its day in court because a New York state court found that it was precluded from bringing claims in litigation due to the res judicata effect of an arbitration award in a dispute between its subsidiary and affiliates of another energy company relating to a similar dispute over the parties’ agreement for the handling and sale of liquid natural gas (LNG).
January 06, 2026
3rd Circuit Won’t Rehear Action Over Arbitrability Of German Discovery Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied several third-party litigation funders’ petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a split panel’s decision addressing a question of first impression, in which the majority affirmed an order denying a bid to compel arbitration of an application for discovery for use in Germany because it said the application does not qualify as a “civil action” under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).
December 23, 2025
Court Confirms $765K Attorney Fees Award Against Chinese Law Firm’s Client

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on Dec. 22 granted a Chinese law firm’s petition to confirm a Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) award worth more than $765,000 in unpaid attorney fees against the firm’s former client, who is now residing in Washington state.
December 22, 2025
Tribunal Bifurcates More Objections In $120M Honduran Electricity Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s order granting in part the Republic of Honduras’ request to bifurcate its additional objections to the tribunal’s jurisdiction over claims against it for more than $120 million in damages brought by two Guatemalan investors, which Honduras contends are inarbitrable contract claims.
December 22, 2025
Italy Ordered To Pay More Than 85M Euros For Waste Management Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Dec. 19 published a tribunal’s award in favor of a French investor worth more than 85 million euros and more than $580,000 in arbitration costs, finding that Italy breached the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) by partly causing the investor’s waste management enterprise’s insolvency.
December 18, 2025
Mining Investors Tell High Court Zimbabwe Waived Sovereign Immunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two Mauritian mining investors filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to address a circuit conflict over the standards for finding that a foreign state impliedly waived its sovereign immunity from suit in federal court, arguing that the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly decided the issue in finding no jurisdiction existed over the investors’ petition to enforce a Zambian court’s judgment confirming an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth roughly $50 million against Zimbabwe and its mining regulators.
December 18, 2025
Corruption Issues Preclude Enforcement Of $1B Award, South Sudan Bank Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bank of South Sudan (BOSS), which on Dec. 17 filed notice in District of Columbia federal court explaining that its counsel was never formally retained to represent co-respondent the Republic of South Sudan, separately filed a brief urging the court to deny a Qatari bank’s motion for judgment on the pleadings confirming an arbitral award against them worth more than $1 billion, writing that the award didn’t address the convictions on corruption charges of certain bank officials.
December 18, 2025
Colombian Coffee Company’s U.S. Parent Compelled To Arbitrate $2.1M Dispute

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge found that a Colombian coffee company’s U.S. parent acted as its principal during negotiations of a coffee bean contract that contained an arbitration clause and, therefore, granted a petition pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention) to compel the parent to participate in arbitration of a more than $2.1 million contract dispute.
December 16, 2025
Judge Denies Guatemala’s Motion To Dismiss Construction Awards Worth $31M

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge adopted in full a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation (R&R) and denied the Republic of Guatemala’s motion to dismiss a petition to confirm three arbitral awards against it worth more than $31 million for construction disputes with a Guatemalan company, overruling Guatemala’s objections to the report based on related proceedings in its domestic courts.
December 12, 2025
Split Tribunal Awards Chevron More Than $220M In Fees For Ecuador Fight

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A split Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal awarded Chevron Corp. and its subsidiary more than $220 million in attorney fees and expenses incurred opposing an Ecuadorian court’s “fraudulent” multibillion-dollar judgment for oil drilling in the rainforest, representing less than 25% of what Chevron sought, with a dissenting arbitrator saying Chevron deserved all the fees it incurred suing a U.S. lawyer who was involved in bribing an Ecuadorian judge.
December 09, 2025
5th Circuit Says State Law Bars Arbitration Of Hurricane Policy Dispute

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 8, applying a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling on certified questions of law regarding the arbitrability of insurance disputes, affirmed a lower court’s denial of domestic insurers’ motion to compel arbitration of a Louisiana town’s claims for damages, breach of contract and bad faith after finding that the participation of foreign insurers in the policy does not require the court to apply the New York Convention.
December 09, 2025
Tribunal Says Netherlands Should Suspend Litigation Opposing Oil Arbitration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published two procedural orders in a dispute between a Belgian oil company and the Kingdom of the Netherlands over the termination of drilling at a Dutch oilfield after local complaints of earthquakes, with the tribunal directing the Netherlands to halt domestic litigation against the oil company and declining the oil company’s request that it order the Netherlands to not impose new levies on it.