Lawrence Northmore-Ball, Jennifer Harvey and Amber Courtier have analysed the lasting significance and future implications of the Micula case in their article “Micula v Romania: a saga of lasting significance” which has been published in the January 2022 edition of the journal European Investment Law and Arbitration Review.
The review provides an insight into the dispute between the Micula parties and Romania which has continued for over 16 years raising issues in investment arbitration and EU law and, in particular, relating to the enforceability of arbitral awards in varying jurisdictions. Whilst the Micula saga may be inching near to a conclusion, it threatens to cause lasting damage to what was intended to be the closed ecosystem of the ICSID Convention. A precedent has been set whereby instead of enforcing awards in accordance with the provisions of the ICSID Convention, Courts of ICSID Member States may proceed to enforce awards as though the ICSID Convention did not apply. The review therefore considers whether a discussion may need to take place in relation to the possible amendment of certain provisions of the ICSID Convention and stresses the importance, in the short term of supranational bodies unrelated to the ICSID Convention not interfering with the obligations of ICSID Member States or presuming to prohibit ICSID Member States from complying with ICSID awards.
Link
Download the review here (paywall)
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