September was marked by a number of significant developments in international dispute resolution. Lawyers from VERBA LEGAL commented on two notable investment arbitration cases: the disputes of Inter RAO with Georgia and ExxonMobil versus Russia.

Inter RAO against Georgia

Commenting on the situation, VERBA LEGAL lawyer Pavel Mingaleev noted that the Washington Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes provides several procedural mechanisms allowing parties to challenge decisions rendered: revision of the case upon discovery of new circumstances or annulment of an award on serious grounds such as procedural violations, corruption, or insufficient reasoning of the tribunal’s conclusions.

According to Mingaleev, statistics from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) confirm the demand for such mechanisms:
“Parties challenge less than half of all awards rendered (194 out of 434 in 2023), and most often it is the State that files such applications — in 57% of cases.”

ExxonMobil against Russia

Another high-profile case is the arbitration initiated by ExxonMobil over the confiscation of its assets in the Sakhalin-1 project.

VERBA LEGAL lawyer Evgeny Gasparyan emphasised the complexity of the upcoming process:
“Like any investment dispute, especially one related to asset confiscation amid a volatile geopolitical background, the arbitration initiated by ExxonMobil may become quite a lengthy and challenging proceeding.”
According to him, arbitration is the company’s only means to achieve actual enforcement of the award.

For more details, please read here.