{"id":346,"date":"2008-10-14T04:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T09:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itn.mattrock.ca\/2008\/10\/14\/argentina-ordered-to-reconsider-its-position-on-payment-of-icsid-awards\/"},"modified":"2008-10-14T04:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T09:42:00","slug":"argentina-ordered-to-reconsider-its-position-on-payment-of-icsid-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2008\/10\/14\/argentina-ordered-to-reconsider-its-position-on-payment-of-icsid-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina ordered to reconsider its position on payment of ICSID awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Damon Vis-Dunbar<br \/>14 October 2008<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A three-person committee formed by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span>) has rejected the Argentine government&rsquo;s position that foreign investors who have been awarded damages through the ICSID arbitration system must go to an Argentine court in order to obtain enforcement of the award. <\/p>\n<p>The committee has given the Argentine government 60 days as of 7 October 2008 &ldquo;to reconsider its position on the extent of its obligations to pay on the final award &#8230;.&rdquo;, in a decision that pushes the question of Argentina&rsquo;s compliance with a string of arbitral decisions that have found the government liable to foreign investors for actions taken during its financial crisis in 2001. <\/p>\n<p>The ad-hoc committee was formed in response to Argentina&rsquo;s request for the annulment of an award rendered in favour of Enron Corporation, an American firm awarded damages of US$ 106 million.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Upon making its annulment request, the award was temporarily stayed.&nbsp; Argentina has requested that the award remain frozen until the annulment committee has made a decision. Enron, however, has asked that the stay be lifted, or that Argentina post a security, so that if the award is not annulled, Enron is guaranteed payment. <\/p>\n<p>Complicating the tribunal&rsquo;s decision is a fundamental disagreement between Enron and the Argentine government over the procedures for enforcing the award.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina does not dispute the binding nature of the award in the case that it is not annulled. However, under its reading of the ICSID rules, &ldquo;award creditors must meet the formal requirements that any person should follow in Argentina to obtain compliance with a final judgment of a local court.&rdquo; In short, this position holds that Enron must, as a formality, seek compliance of the award by an Argentine court. <\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s an argument that has been firmly rejected by the ad-hoc committee. As a result, the committee has given the Argentine government 60 days to reconsider its position, before it determines whether the stay should be lifted, or if a security should be posted. <\/p>\n<p>Decision on the Argentine Republic&rsquo;s Request for a Continued Stay of Enforcement of the Award in Enron Corporation Ponderosa Assets, L.P. v. Argentine Republic (ICSID Case no. Arb\/01\/3) is available from the ICSID website by clicking <a href=\"http:\/\/icsid.worldbank.org\/ICSID\/FrontServlet?requestType=CasesRH&amp;actionVal=viewCase&amp;reqFrom=Home&amp;caseId=C3\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<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('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips114','Sistema de Tribunales de Inversiones'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/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>By Damon Vis-Dunbar14 October 2008&nbsp; A three-person committee formed by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span>) has rejected the Argentine government&rsquo;s position that foreign investors who [&hellip;]<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/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('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-itn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}