Cross-border investment runs on a web of bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, and investment contracts that promise foreign investors fair treatment and protection from arbitrary state action. We represent both investors and states in investment treaty arbitration, including proceedings before ICSID and ad hoc tribunals, where the stakes and the political pressure both run high.
Claims For Investors
When a host state expropriates an investment, denies fair and equitable treatment, discriminates against a foreign investor, or breaks an investment contract, treaty arbitration is often the only neutral forum available. We build the claim from the ground up: confirming treaty coverage, structuring the investment to qualify for protection, quantifying losses with economic experts, and advocating before the tribunal. We focus on a theory the arbitrators can actually award on.
Defending Host States
States need advocates who respect both the law and the public interest behind regulatory decisions. We defend states against treaty claims by challenging jurisdiction, contesting whether a qualifying investment exists, and showing that legitimate regulation is not a treaty breach. We work to keep damages exposure realistic and to preserve a government's room to act in areas like public health, the environment, and national security.
Jurisdiction And Enforcement
Investment cases are won and lost on threshold questions long before the merits. We litigate consent to arbitrate, nationality requirements, the definition of investment, and the reach of most-favored-nation and umbrella clauses. After an award, we pursue or resist recognition and enforcement under the ICSID Convention or the New York Convention, tracing assets across jurisdictions and answering sovereign immunity defenses.