Energy projects in Latin America are a major contributor to economic growth worldwide. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of specific issues arising from energy and natural resources contracts and disputes in the region, covering a wide range of procedural, substantive, and socio-legal issues. The book also includes how states have shifted from passive business partners to more active controlling players. The book contains an extensive treatment and examination of the particularities of arbitration practice in Latin America, including arbitrability, public order, enforcement, and the complex public-private nature of energy transactions. Specialists experienced in resolving international energy and natural disputes throughout the region provide detailed analysis of such issues and topics, including: state-owned entities as co-investors or contracting parties; role of environmental law, indigenous rights and public participation; issues related to political changes, corruption, and quantification of damages; climate change, renewable energy, and the energy transition; force majeure, hardship, and price reopeners; arbitration in the electricity sector; take-or-pay contracts; recognition and enforcement of awards; tension between stabilization clauses and human rights; mediation as a method for dispute settlement in the energy and natural resources sector; and different comparative approaches taken by national courts in key Latin American jurisdictions. The book also delivers a clear explanation on the impact made to the arbitration process by Covid-19, emerging laws, changes of political circumstances, the economic global trends in the oil & gas market, the energy transition, and the rise of new technologies. This invaluable book will be welcomed by in-house lawyers, government officials, as well as academics and rest of the arbitration community involved in international arbitration with particular interest in the energy and natural resources sector.

Disputes in the energy and natural resources sector are at the heart of international arbitration. With more arbitrations arising in the international energy sector than in any other sector, it is not surprising that the highest valued awards in the history of arbitration come from energy-related arbitrations. Energy disputes often involve complex and controversial issues relating to security, sovereignty, and public welfare. International Arbitration in the Energy Sector puts international energy disputes into a global context, providing broad coverage of different forms and systems of dispute resolution across both renewable and non-renewable sectors. With contributions from leading arbitrators, academics, and industry experts from across the globe, the twenty chapters in the book enable readers to compare the approaches to, and learnings from, energy arbitrations across various legal systems and geographic regions. After outlining the international energy arbitration legal framework in Part I, the text delves into a detailed analysis of the problems which regularly arise in practice. These include, among other things, commercial disputes in Part II (e.g. over the upstream oil sector and long-term gas supply contracts), investor-state disputes in Part III (e.g. under the Energy Charter Treaty), and public international law disputes in Part IV (e.g. concerning international boundaries and the distribution of natural resources). Alongside recent developments in the international energy sector, attention is given to climate and sustainable development disputes, which raise important questions about enforcing sustainability objectives on individuals, corporations, and states. Backed by analyses of arbitral awards, national court and international tribunal decisions, treaties, and other international legal instruments, as well as current events and news in the energy industry, this text offers a unique contribution to international energy literature and provides insightful commentary on the prevalent issues in the field. It is essential reading for any practitioner or researcher in the energy and natural resources sector.

The oil and gas industry’s wide international exposure and constantly changing landscape leave it particularly vulnerable to disputes. As this practical book demonstrates, the risks associated with disputes can be mitigated by parties utilising governing law and dispute resolution clauses in contractual agreements within the sector. Examining a global range of jurisdictions, the book offers clear guidance on the most appropriate choice of law and choice of dispute resolution forum for oil and gas contracts, analysing the key issues and defining the legal contours involved.

The past decade has seen a veritable explosion of investment treaty and other arbitration claims brought against sovereigns. Many of those cases have been filed before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Claims (ICSID), which has its own self-contained rules for enforcement. Given this significant increase in sovereign cases and the issues attendant to sovereign immunity, this treatise is timely in addressing the various issues that arise in enforcing arbitral awards against sovereigns. One of the first questions posed to their counsel by clients considering the initiation of an arbitration proceeding against a sovereign state is whether and how the resulting award can be enforced. The origin of the client’s question is usually based in some knowledge that a state possesses sovereign immunity, along with an uncertain concern about the exceptions to such immunity and the difficulties of enforcement against a sovereign’s assets. This uncertainty is understandable, especially in light of the sometimes confusing and even contradictory court decisions in certain jurisdictions. It is these inquiries in their broadest application that form the subject of this treatise. With contributions by eminent and experienced practitioners of the multiple issues that have arisen in various jurisdictions and the key cases that have created the law of enforcement of obligations against sovereigns, this book will provide access to valuable information, add to the transparency of this subject and further spur the consistent development of this area of law. This book is divided into three parts. The first part is general in nature and includes chapters encompassing the subjects of sovereign immunity in general (including both immunity from jurisdiction and immunity from enforcement), treaty obligations to honor awards, diplomatic protection by a claimant’s government to obtain payment of awards, and conciliation and settlement. The second part of the book deals with the means of enforcing awards. Part three of this treatise addresses the enforcement issues that arise in specific jurisdictions in which enforcement against sovereign assets is often sought - in particular, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, and South America.