Introduction

In a case the court itself described as "rare", the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ("Court") recently overturned a lower district court's vacatur of a $495 million arbitral award against the Government of Turkmenistan ("Government") in a dispute arising out of a joint venture between Bridas, an Argentine corporation, and a Turkmenian state-owned oil and gas company.[1] In Bridas S.A.P.I.C. v. Government of Turkmenistan ("Bridas II"), the Court held that the Government was a proper party in the underlying arbitration, despite the fact that it never signed the ...