Forty-Second ITF Public Conference: Illegality in International Investment Law (Hybrid)
Event Details
The consequences of an investment being deemed illegal can be severe, including the denial of substantive protections, jurisdiction, and potential claims for damages. Although numerous arbitral decisions and scholarly debates have addressed the issue of illegality in international investment, much uncertainty still remains.
Illegality may touch upon various aspects of investment activities and dispute resolution procedure, including violations of host laws, evidence obtained by illegal means, illegality in investment contracts. These issues may arise during arbitral proceedings or at the enforcement stage. Debates continue as to whether the illegality of the investment should be assessed at the time of establishment or throughout the lifespan of the investment.
Investments that are made in violation of the host state's laws and regulations, such as environmental regulations or licensing requirements, may be considered illegal and, consequently, not entitled to protection under international investment agreements (IIAs) or international law.
If an investment is obtained through bribery, fraud, or other forms of corruption, tribunals may find that the investment is tainted and, therefore, not protected by IIAs or international law. This is known as the "corruption defence" and has been applied in various cases.
More generally, investments that involve the proceeds of criminal activities or money laundering may be considered illegal and, therefore, not protected by IIAs or international law.
The Investment Treaty Forum will bring together the leading practitioners and academics in the field of international investment law as well as representatives of governments to discuss these complex issues.
Join in the conversation @BIICL #ITFLaw #ISDS
Programme
09.00 - 09.30 | Registration with coffee & tea
09.30 - 09.45 | Welcome and Introduction
Professor Yarik Kryvoi is Senior Research Fellow in International Economic Law and Director of the Investment Treaty Forum (ITF) at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). He is also an Of Counsel at Keidan Harrison in London.
He holds law degrees from Harvard, Moscow, Nottingham, Utrecht and St Petersburg and is admitted to practice in the State of New York. Before moving to academia, he practiced international investment law with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Washington, DC and Baker & McKenzie in Saint Petersburg. He is the founding editor of the CIS Arbitration Forum and serves on editorial boards of several international legal periodicals.
Yarik is the course leader of the Institute's online course "International Investment Law and Dispute Resolution, available here.
09.45 - 10.15 | Keynote Address
Mark Pieth was, up to his retirement in 2020, a Swiss Professor of Criminal Law specialized in economic and organized crime. He has chaired the OECD Working Group on Bribery for 24 years and assumed many roles in international organisations, namely as Member of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN’s Oil-for-Food Programme. He holds an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Sussex (UK). Currently Prof. Pieth is running a law firm specialized on expert opinions in international cases.
He was the co-founder of the Competence Centre Arbitration and Crime, the publishers of the Toolkit for Arbitrators on corruption and money laundering. Prof. Pieth has served as an expert witness in several landmark arbitration cases, namely IPOC (ad hoc tribunal) Fraport/Philippines (ICSID), Piatco/Philippines (ICC) and Spentex v. Uzbekistan (ICSID), Rutas de Lima v. MM de Lima, Veolia v. Vilnius, Anatolie Stati v Kazakhstan, and as one of the Final Judges of the Jessup Moot Court 2011.
10.15 - 11.45 | Panel 1. Illegality in International Investment Disputes: Approaches, Consequences, and Investor Accountability
Attila Massimiliano Tanzi, is Professor of International Law at the University of Bologna. He was a visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London, at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and the University of Vienna, and director of studies at the Hague Academy of International Law. He is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Tashkent International Arbitration Centre, a member of the International Supervisory Board of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Arbitration Centre (OIC-AC), conciliator conciliator at the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Chairman of the Implementation Committee of the UNECE Water Convention.
He was a legal advisor to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment. On several occasions, he was a member of Italy’s delegation to the Sixth Committee (Legal) of the UN General Assembly and international diplomatic conferences. He is listed on the PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration) specialised panel of Arbitrators for Environment disputes.
Diana Rosert is an Economic Affairs Officer at UNCTAD's International Investment Agreements Section. She holds a Master of Arts in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Her research interests are in international investment agreements, investor-state arbitration and, more generally, the sustainable development implications of investment policies.
Dr. Martin Jarrett is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany and an External Lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. Martin previously worked at the University of Mannheim as a Senior Lecturer where his role encompassed research and teaching responsibilities for a compulsory course and various elective courses.
Martin is a Solicitor and Barrister (New South Wales, Australia) and he holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws (with first class honours) (both from the University of Newcastle, Australia), a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (College of Law, Sydney), and a Doctor of Laws (summa cum laude) (University of Mannheim).
Annie Pan is a Senior Associate in Freshfields’ international arbitration practice in London. Annie practices investment treaty and commercial arbitration, with a particular focus on emerging market disputes and damages issues.
She has acted in disputes under the ICSID, ICSID Additional Facility, UNCITRAL, LCIA and ICC Rules, and worked with clients covering a range of sectors, including energy, telecoms, mining, infrastructure, shipping and agriculture. Since 2017, she has taught a seminar on cross examination at ESADE. Annie has also spent time in the firm’s Washington, DC and Singapore offices.
11.45 - 12.00 | Break
12.00 - 13.30 | Panel 2. Challenging Illegality in Investment Arbitration: Evidence, Corruption, and Investor Responsibility
Alan Bonfiglio Rios is Director General of International Trade Legal Consulting at the Legal Office for International Trade Law at the Ministry of Economy of Mexico. He represents Mexico in investor-State arbitration and he also provides counsel on negotiation and implementation of free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties.
Previously he was part of Hogan Lovells' (Mexico City) litigation and arbitration practice. He holds a law degree from the National University of Mexico (UNAM), an LLM in international commercial law from Paris-X Nanterre University (France) and an LLM in international law from University College London (UK / Chevening scholar).
Lucy Winnington-Ingram is counsel in Reed Smith’s Global Commercial Disputes Group in London. She has a broad international arbitration practice with particularexpertise in investor-state dispute settlement and public international law. Lucy also advises clients on foreign investment protection.
Lucy has experience of acting in arbitrations for both claimants and respondents under all major arbitral rules and particularly on disputes arising in the mining, energy, construction, and commodities sectors. Lucy’s recent experience includes disputes over the transfer of licenses, the alleged nationalization of strategic assets, the alleged state expropriation of mineral and petroleum assets, and breaches of other commercial agreements and international law.
Jessica Gladstone is a partner and solicitor-advocate at Clifford Chance in London. She specialises in international arbitration, commercial and public law litigation and public international law. Jessica advises on international trade and investment, immunities, economic sanctions and human rights.
Jessica has represented multinational corporations, financial institutions, international organisations, states and individuals before arbitral tribunals and domestic and international courts, including the Privy Council and the European Court of Human Rights. An accomplished advocate, she has acted in some of the most complex international and commercial disputes, and she is a trusted adviser on risk and reputation management, including political risk, business and human rights and wider ESG issues.
A former legal adviser for the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Jessica has experience negotiating treaties, and representing the UK at the United Nations, the Council of Europe and in other international institutions. Beyond her practice as counsel, she also sits as arbitrator.
Tomoko Ishikawa is a Professor at Nagoya University in Japan. She has served as
an ICSID Conciliator, appointed by the Chairman of the Administrative Council (2017-2023), a member of the Legal Advisory Committee of the Energy Charter Treaty, an arbitrator at Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, and a mediator at the Kyoto International Mediation Centre. Her professional experiences include serving as an Associate Judge at Tokyo District Court and holding the position of Deputy Director at the International Legal Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, where she worked on bilateral/trilateral investment treaties, Free Trade Agreements, and WTO dispute settlement.
Her recent publications includes Tomoko Ishikawa, Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Investor-State Dispute Settlement: The Unexhausted Potential of Current Mechanisms (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Tomoko Ishikawa and Yarik Kryvoi (eds.), Public and Private Governance of Cybersecurity: Challenges and Potential (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
13.30 - 14.30 | Lunch (provided for all participants)
14.30 - 16.00 | Panel 3. Courts and Tribunals in International Arbitration: Interplay, Evidence, and Post-award Control
Hannah Ambrose is a Partner and solicitor advocate in Herbert Smith Freehills’ international arbitration and public international law group in London. Hannah advises clients and colleagues globally on complex issues relating to commercial and investment arbitration, dispute resolution, enforcement of awards and judgments, and public international law.
Hannah has acted as counsel in ad hoc commercial arbitrations and proceedings under the auspices of major arbitral institutions, including the ICC, LCIA and SCC. She has acted as counsel on a number of investment treaty claims, and advised clients on investment structuring. She also has experience in advising on a range of other public international law matters, including state immunity, immunity of international organisations, and boundaries. She works across a number of sectors,including energy, mining, pharma and financial institutions and bank.
Chloe Baldwin is an Associate at Steptoe in Washington, DC. She focuses on international disputes and public international law, and in particular the resolutionof international investment disputes. She currently advises sovereign and non-sovereign clients in international investment proceedings, binational proceedings, and matters arising under the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Prior to joining Steptoe, Chloe served for six years as a legal officer and senior legal officer in the Office of International Law within the Australian Attorney-General's Department, where she specialized in international trade and investment law.
Chloe has represented sovereign states, state-owned entities, and private investorsin numerous investment treaty arbitrations conducted under the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) rules. She has extensive experience in advising on matters of public International law, including the law of state responsibility and treaty interpretation.
Arif Hyder is a globally ranked and recognized lawyer with over 30 years of experience in international dispute settlement, including investor-State and international commercial arbitration, state-to-state disputes, and cross-border litigation. He is currently the Co-Chair of Dechert LLP’s International Arbitration and Public International Law Group in Washington, DC.
He has served as lead trial counsel and arbitrator (sole, party-appointed, presiding) in arbitrations under all the major arbitral regimes and the laws of over 50 civil and common law jurisdictions, as well as Islamic law and public international law.
Arif has held positions at leading academic institutions (Georgetown University Law Center, University of Dundee’s Centre for Energy, Mineral Law, and Policy) as an adjunct law professor, honorary lecturer and globalfaculty member. He has worked as a senior lawyer in two international organizations: from 1993 to 1996, he was a Section Chief at the United Nations Compensation Commission, a subsidiary organ of the UN Security Council, and from 2000 to 2001, he served as Senior Counsel at the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center.
Vivek Kapoor is a specialist advocate with a practice in international arbitration and commercial litigation at 39 Essex Chambers in London. He is recognisedfor his expertise in high-value, multijurisdictional cases related to energy, infrastructure and construction, natural resources, mining and commodities, banking and financial services, civil fraud and asset tracing, sanctions, investor-state dispute settlement and public international law.
Vivek acts for Sovereign states and state-entities, leading Fortune 500 corporations, multinational and regional corporations, principals and their business from a wide range of geographies. Vivek has an established practice as counsel before the English courts and in international arbitration. He also acts in courts of India, DIFC and ADGM, and has in the past acted in matters before the highest courts of Singapore and Hong Kong.
He also acts as arbitrator in international arbitrations. He is frequently appointed as presiding, sole and co-arbitrator in LCIA, ICC and SIAC arbitrations, amongst others.
16.00 - 16.15 | Concluding Remarks
Audley Sheppard KC has extensive experience of major disputes arising out of infrastructure and energy projects, and international trade and investment. Audley joined Twenty Essex in June 2024 after 38 years at Clifford Chance (28 as a partner), where he was the co-Head of the International Arbitration and International Law groups. He has been appointed as an arbitrator under the LCIA, ICC, SIAC, Bucharest IAC, LMAA and UNCITRAL Rules (including an investment treaty arbitration).He is on the EU List Suitable for Appointment as Arbitrators (Trade).
Audley is a vice president of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration. He is a former chair of the Board and vice president of the Court of the LCIA, New Zealand member on the ICC International Court of Arbitration and Arbitration Commission, co-chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee, and rapporteur of the ILA Arbitration Committee.
Download PDF
This programme is subject to change.
Pricing and Registration
This is a hybrid conference, being held in person at the BIICL office in Russell Square, London and virtually.
In person registration is now closed
Book to attend the event online