Paris Court of Appeal dismisses Russia’s attempt to annul Crimea award
Arbitration analysis: The Paris Court of Appeal has dismissed the Russian Federation’s second attempt to annul a US$1.1bn Crimea-expropriation award in favour of the Ukrainian state bank Oschadbank. On remand from the Cour de cassation, the court held that none of Russia’s annulment grounds: lack of jurisdiction ratione temporis, loci or materiae, excess of mandate, procedural fraud or tribunal bias met the narrow tests in article 1520 of the French Civil Procedure Code (CPC). Importantly, the judges confirmed that the BIT’s article 12 ‘post-1992 investment’ clause is a merits condition; therefore the only jurisdictional criterion for annulment purposes is whether the dispute arose after the treaty entered into force, which it did (27 January 2000). The decision cements France’s very limited review of investor-state awards and clarifies how Paris courts will treat Russia/Crimea BIT cases. Practitioners should note the court’s refusal to revisit territorial or ‘foreign’ investment objections at the annulment stage, which precludes reconsideration of merits-related objections disguised as jurisdictional. Written by Anna Guillard Sazhko, International Arbitration counsel and arbitrator.