The interplay between domestic criminal proceedings and investment treaty arbitration (Hassan Awdi & Ors v Romania)

Table of contents

• Practical implications
• What was the background to the claimant's motion?
• What did the tribunal decide?
• Tribunal and decision details

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: in a decision dated 26 July 2013, but only recently published by ICSID, the tribunal, in the arbitration proceeding between US investors, Hassan Awdi and others, and Romania, decided the claimants’ motion for a summary decision on the admissibility of one of the respondent’s jurisdictional objections. The tribunal dismissed the claimant’s motion and, during the course of its decision, considered the interplay between, on the one hand, the sovereign power of a state to investigate and prosecute criminal acts in its domestic courts and, on the other, the autonomy of investment treaty arbitration proceedings from such criminal investigations.