{"id":17471,"date":"2026-09-09T17:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=17471"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:12:01","slug":"uk-supreme-court-rules-states-cannot-invoke-immunity-against-registration-of-icsid-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2026\/09\/09\/uk-supreme-court-rules-states-cannot-invoke-immunity-against-registration-of-icsid-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Supreme Court Rules States Cannot Invoke Immunity Against Registration of ICSID Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On March 4, 2026, the UK Supreme Court handed down <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.uk\/cases\/judgments\/uksc-2024-0155\">judgment<\/a> in <em>Kingdom of Spain v Infrastructure Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l.<\/em> and <em>Republic of Zimbabwe v Border Timbers Ltd<\/em> [2026] UKSC 9. A unanimous bench, with Lord Lloyd-Jones and Lady Simler writing, <a href=\"https:\/\/supremecourt.uk\/cases\/press-summary\/uksc-2024-0155\">held<\/a> that by agreeing to Article 54(1) of the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips1'>ICSID Convention<\/span>, contracting states submit to the adjudicative jurisdiction of the English courts under section 2(2) of the State Immunity Act 1978 and therefore cannot invoke immunity to resist registration of <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> awards. The appeals concerned an intra-<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span> <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips67'>ECT<\/span> award against Spain of EUR 112 million, later reduced by EUR 11 million, and a USD 124 million expropriation award against Zimbabwe under the Switzerland-Zimbabwe <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips63'>BIT<\/span>. Immunity from execution against state assets under Article 55 is preserved, and Zimbabwe&#8217;s non-immunity defences were <a href=\"https:\/\/essexcourt.com\/supreme-court-judgment-on-sovereign-immunity-and-icsid-awards\/\">remitted<\/a> to the Commercial Court. The ruling aligns the United Kingdom with appellate decisions in the United States, Australia, and <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.law\/en\/gbr\/legal-updates\/supreme-court-confirms-the-scope-of-state-immunity-in-relation-to-the-registration-of-icsid-arbitration-awards\">elsewhere<\/a>, closing off adjudicative immunity as a shield for the more than 150 ICSID contracting states. For capital-importing states, including in Africa, it heightens the exposure of commercial assets abroad once liability is established.<\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips1','Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/script><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('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/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('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 4, 2026, the UK Supreme Court handed down judgment in Kingdom of Spain v Infrastructure Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l. and Republic of Zimbabwe v Border Timbers Ltd [2026] UKSC 9.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":17472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1900],"class_list":["post-17471","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\/17471","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=17471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17475,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17471\/revisions\/17475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}