ICSID—tribunal issues interim decision on environmental counterclaim (Perenco v Ecuador)

Table of contents

• Practical implications
• What is the background to the decision?
• Did the tribunal comment on the nature of the counterclaim?
• What did the tribunal decide?
• The tribunal's criticism of the parties' experts
• The appeal for settlement
• Tribunal and decision details

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: The tribunal in the ICSID arbitration proceeding between Perenco Ecuador and the Republic of Ecuador has issued its interim decision on the respondent’s environmental counterclaim. In its much anticipated decision, the tribunal made a series of findings of law and fact, including that it seemed likely that Perenco was liable for some damage to the environment, but ultimately concluded that it required an additional phase of fact-finding in order to arrive at a just and proper conclusion, particularly as the tribunal found the parties’ experts to have ‘crossed the boundary between professional objective analysis and party representation’.