Post-Award Procedures & Enforcement

Post-award challenges and enforcement procedures constitute a complex but critical part of many international investment disputes.  Our lawyers have extensive experience in the enforcement of international arbitration awards against sovereign States and the monetisation of such awards. We have advised investors and sovereign States on set-aside and enforcement proceedings in multiple jurisdictions.  We have an extensive network of relationships with leading local counsel in domestic jurisdictions around the world, with whom we regularly work in post-award proceedings.

Highlights of our lawyers’ experience in post-award procedures and enforcement include:

  • advising a global investment management firm in connection with one of the world’s largest investment treaty awards of recent years, including evaluating prospects for enforcement and risks of a potential set-aside application by the sovereign State
  • advising the central bank of a sovereign State on protecting State-owned assets from attachment in the post-award phase of an UNCITRAL investment-treaty arbitration
  • settling a high-value investment treaty arbitration dispute against a sovereign State
  • advising a Luxembourg company in set-aside proceedings in Sweden (the seat of the arbitration) relating to two investment treaty awards worth in excess of €150 million, and in a related preliminary reference procedure before the Court of Justice of the European Union
  • working with specialist Dutch counsel to defend successfully a set-aside challenge to an investment treaty arbitral award rendered in The Hague
  • advising a Finnish national on successful enforcement proceedings relating to his arbitral award against an African State worth over US$ 120 million, which involved coordinating specialist local counsel in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Turkey and the United States
  • advising both State and investor clients in defending set-aside applications in the Netherlands following arbitral awards rendered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague
  • advising a US client on enforcement against sovereign State assets located in the United Kingdom
  • advising a leading US private equity investor on the challenge of an ICSID (Additional Facility) award in French courts and associated enforcement proceedings in the US courts