{"id":17464,"date":"2026-09-09T17:12:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=17464"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:12:06","slug":"us-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-spain-and-russia-cementing-award-enforcement-in-us-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2026\/09\/09\/us-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-spain-and-russia-cementing-award-enforcement-in-us-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"US Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Spain and Russia, Cementing Award Enforcement in US Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On June 29, 2026, the US Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/orders\/courtorders\/062926zor_1bn2.pdf\">denied certiorari<\/a> in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/docket\/docketfiles\/html\/public\/24-1130.html\">Kingdom of Spain v. Blasket Renewable Investments LLC<\/a><\/em> and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/docket\/docketfiles\/html\/public\/25-1093.html\">Russian Federation v. Stabil LLC<\/a><\/em>, leaving intact DC Circuit rulings that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.akingump.com\/en\/insights\/alerts\/enforcing-arbitral-awards-against-sovereigns-the-us-remains-the-forum-of-choicewith-caveats\">rejected<\/a> both states&#8217; sovereign immunity defences under the arbitration exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Spain contested the enforcement of intra-<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span> Energy Charter Treaty awards of approximately EUR 360 million held by NextEra, 9REN, and Blasket, arguing that EU law invalidated its standing offer to arbitrate; Russia contested awards arising from the annexation of Crimea under the 1998 Ukraine-Russia <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips63'>BIT<\/span>. The US Solicitor General had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.italaw.com\/cases\/documents\/14631\">urged<\/a> denial in a May 26, 2026 amicus brief, while flagging openings for future FSIA <a href=\"https:\/\/tlblog.org\/the-solicitor-general-opposes-cert-in-spain-v-blasket-but-opens-the-door-to-future-fsia-challenges-to-award-enforcement\/\">challenges<\/a>. The denials consolidate the United States as the leading forum for enforcing awards that are effectively unenforceable inside the EU, where the European Commission has ordered Spain not to pay. For respondent states, the standoff between EU law and international enforcement obligations is now, as a practical matter, resolved against them in US courts, sharpening the fiscal consequences of adverse awards.<\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips76','multilateral investment court'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips110','inversi\u00f3n extranjera directa'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 29, 2026, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Kingdom of Spain v. Blasket Renewable Investments LLC and Russian Federation v. Stabil LLC, leaving intact DC Circuit rulings that rejected both states&#8217; sovereign immunity defences under the arbitration exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips110','inversi\u00f3n extranjera directa'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":17465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1900],"class_list":["post-17464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-current-issue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17468,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464\/revisions\/17468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}