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Mealey's International Arbitration

  • February 10, 2026

    Tribunal Won’t Suspend Mexican Investors’ NAFTA Claim Despite Negotiations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 9 published a tribunal’s order denying two American entities’ request for suspension of their arbitration against the United Mexican States for harming their interest in debt securities worth more than $219 million in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), rejecting their argument that the Mexican president is willing to negotiate because Mexico opposed the suspension.

  • February 10, 2026

    5th Circuit Won’t Rehear Insurers’ Bid To Arbitrate Hurricane Insurance Dispute

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 9 denied a group of domestic insurers’ petition for en banc rehearing of its ruling affirming that state law prohibits arbitration of insurance disputes over Louisiana hurricane damage like the one they were involved in and had said should be arbitrated pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention).

  • February 10, 2026

    Mining Company Seeks Annulment Of No-Damages ICSID Award Against Colombia

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 9 published a Canadian precious metals exploration company’s application for annulment of a no-damages award in its dispute against the Republic of Colombia, citing “inconsistency” in the award because a split tribunal awarded it no damages after a different majority of the split tribunal found Colombia caused the company damages.

  • February 09, 2026

    Tribunal Dismisses Panama’s Request To Bifurcate Gold And Copper Mining Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 6 published a tribunal’s decision denying the Republic of Panama’s request to bifurcate a $400 million arbitration claim brought against it by a Canadian mining company that says Panama retroactively canceled its gold and copper mining concessions, finding both that Panama’s jurisdictional objections are intertwined with the merits and that the merits phase cannot be bifurcated because the merits are intertwined with potential damages.

  • February 05, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms Another Denial Of Insurers’ Bid To Arbitrate Hurricane Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — In the latest of multiple rulings in which the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed course from its prior precedent and proceeded to bar arbitration of Louisiana hurricane insurance disputes following new Louisiana Supreme Court precedent, a panel on Feb. 4 issued a per curiam unpublished opinion affirming the vacatur of a previous order compelling arbitration of insurance and bad faith claims arising out of hurricane damage to a hotel.

  • February 04, 2026

    Judge Compels Arbitration In Dubai After Previous Arbitration Center’s Abolition

    NEW ORLEANS — On remand from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a Louisiana federal judge compelled arbitration of a $1.3 million dispute over a Saudi oil and gas project at the Dubai International Arbitration Center (DIAC), rebuffing the parties’ competing arguments for arbitration in London or Saudi Arabia, which each side maintained would be a better option after the abolition of the Dubai arbitration institution at which they had previously agreed to arbitrate.

  • January 30, 2026

    U.S. Issues License Allowing Transactions For ‘Venezuela-Origin Oil’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on Jan. 29 issued a general license authorizing transactions for sales of oil and oil-related assets belonging to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its affiliates, which is required due to U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, representing a key step for pending litigation in Delaware federal court where a $5.8 billion bid for Venezuela’s holdings in CITGO Petroleum Corp. was approved, pending appeal before the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 28, 2026

    5th Circuit: No Jurisdiction Over Insurers’ Bid To Arbitrate Hurricane Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over an appeal brought by domestic insurers against a Louisiana political subdivision that brought claims for hurricane insurance coverage, citing a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling arising out of certified questions from the same case and recent Fifth Circuit precedents holding that state law prohibits arbitration of such disputes.

  • January 26, 2026

    Judge Approves Interlocutory Appeal Of Arbitrability Of Sweepstakes Website Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge certified an interlocutory appeal as to the arbitrability of a consumer’s putative class suit for fraud against the Canadian operators of a “sweepstakes casino” website that she alleges is in fact an illegal gambling website, after the judge ruled the claims must be arbitrated pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention).

  • January 26, 2026

    Arbitrator’s ‘Inattention’ Doesn’t Doom $55M Tribunal Award, High Court Told

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chinese citizen on Jan. 23 filed a brief opposing a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by a Chinese national who resides in California and is seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming the confirmation of a more than $55 million Chengdu Arbitration Commission (CAC) three-arbitrator tribunal’s award, writing in the brief that one arbitrator’s “inattention” doesn’t violate U.S. public policy.

  • January 05, 2026

    COMMENTARY: Battle Of The Arbitration Seats: Contrasting The 2025 English Arbitration Act Reform With France’s Reform Proposal

    By José Feris and Natalia Rodriguez Alvarez

  • January 22, 2026

    Award Against Poland Should Be Enforced Despite Annulment, Investor Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Cypriot investor on Jan. 22 filed an amended brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that its petition to enforce an arbitral award against the Republic of Poland worth more than $40 million was improperly dismissed based on a Swedish court’s annulment of the award under European Union law, writing that the court “abdicated its obligation to apply U.S. law and public policy.”

  • January 22, 2026

    Shipping Investor Seeks Attorney Fees For ‘Hidden’ Fraud Evidence In Arbitration

    NEW YORK — A shipping investor filed a motion in New York federal court for sanctions and an award of attorney fees against Reed Smith LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP and an attorney at each firm, writing that they improperly sought confirmation of a JAMS award worth more than $102 million despite allegedly “knowing” that it “had been obtained through fraud” and that a judge vacated due to “false testimony.”

  • January 21, 2026

    Tribunal Won’t Order Netherlands To Cease Issuing Gas Tremor Levies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a procedural order in an arbitration between a Belgian oil company and the Kingdom of the Netherlands over the termination of drilling at a Dutch oilfield, with the tribunal declining the oil company’s request that it order the Netherlands to stop issuing levies to citizens who complain of gas production-linked tremors near the oilfield, with the company saying the levies are erroneous and have already exceeded 3.96 billion euros.

  • 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.