Investment Treaty Arbitration
Why Cooley
Cooley lawyers are among the world’s most experienced investment treaty counsel. We have an outstanding track record advising sovereigns and investors in cutting-edge cases and achieving landmark results. Through our advocacy, as reflected in reported cases, Cooley lawyers have helped confirm some of the basic substantive and procedural aspects of investment treaty law.
Cooley lawyers handle bet-the-country, bet-the-firm investment arbitration cases where the amounts in dispute are high (+$500 million or more) and the principles at stake are fundamental. We have acted and continue to act under bilateral and multilateral investment treaties under every major set of arbitration rules (ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, etc.).
With decades of experience in investment treaty arbitration, we are on first-name terms with most of the major players in the investment treaty world. We bring an insider’s view to the selection of arbitration panels for investor-State arbitrations. As thought leaders in this area, we regularly are called upon to speak at leading investment events and in the international media. We teach investment arbitration in leading academic institutions both in the UK and the US.
Our substantive sector experience includes disputes involving investments in energy, oil and gas, construction, financial services, life sciences, technology, manufacturing, infrastructure development, defense/aerospace and insurance/reinsurance industries.
Cooley lawyers are trained and qualified in a variety of both civil and common-law jurisdictions and are fluent in multiple languages. Several of our arbitration partners serve as arbitrators. Over the years, we have developed a large network of local counsel to pair with in jurisdictions around the globe.
We regularly enforce investment treaty awards before the US and English courts under the New York and ICSID Conventions and have significant experience with all aspects of third-party funding and litigation insurance.
Representative Matters
- Represented a multinational energy company in connection with an ICC arbitration in Singapore with a Southeast Asian state relating to the validity of a long-term PPA and water off-take agreement
- Represented a Swiss company as claimant in an ICSID arbitration involving the expropriation by Venezuela of a fertilizer plant and related off-take agreement
- Represented a claimant in an ICC arbitration involving the failure of Libya to abide by its Full Protection and Security obligations
- Represented a claimant in an ICSID arbitration involving Uzbekistan's expropriation of three cotton spinning facilities
- Represented a claimant in an ICSID arbitration involving the UAE's denial of justice to a foreign investor in connection with an expropriation
- Represented one of the largest global energy companies in an ICSID contractual dispute under a gas supply agreement against a Turkish entity
- Represented Canada in multiple investment treaty arbitrations under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), concerning investments in the pesticides, pharmaceutical, land development, transportation, energy and tourism industries
- Represented Croatia in its defense of an ICSID arbitration under the Austria-Croatia bilateral investment treaty concerning measures adopted by the State to stabilize the domestic homeownership loans market further to the delinking of the Swiss franc from the Euro
- Represented Barbados in its defense of an UNCITRAL arbitration under the Canada-Barbados bilateral investment treaty concerning the State's environmental stewardship of a wetland site and its alleged impact on an ecotourism investment venture
- Represented Nigeria in an ICSID arbitration under the Nigerian Investment Protection Act concerning the State's alleged failure to intervene in a private court dispute concerning ownership of a Nigerian oil company
- Represented Canada as counsel in the negotiation of multiple bilateral investment agreements with States around the world and in the negotiation of the Investment Chapter of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
- Counsel to an investor in an ICSID arbitration regarding the direct expropriation of a substantial aquaculture enterprise by the Republic of The Gambia
- Appointed by a State to an Energy Charter Treaty tribunal in a dispute under the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce rules