Overview

The concept of contributory fault in international law has been developed to address the consequences of blameable conduct of a party injured by an internationally wrongful act.  It has been applied most recently in the three awards rendered in the arbitration between the majority shareholders of Yukos and the Russian Federation (referred to hereinafter as Hulley awards).  In these awards, the tribunal reduced the damages awarded to the claimants by 25%, which was the figure corresponding to the tribunal’s assessment of the claimants’ contribution to the injury. In nominal terms, this led to the reduction of damages by USD 16.7 billion, from USD 66.7 billion to USD 50 billion. The present paper provides an analysis of that particular aspect of the Hulley awards.

Articles in this series of Yukos papers so far:

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree: The Admissibility of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence in International Arbitration
by J.H. Boykin and M. Havalic
on OGEL and TDM

Mammoth Arbitrations: the Yukos Awards of 18 July 2014
by S. Nappert
on OGEL and TDM

Yukos and Contributory Fault by W. Sadowski
on OGEL and on TDM

What's Tax Got To Do With It? The Yukos Tribunal's Approach to Motive and Treaty Interpretation
by R. Teitelbaum
on OGEL and on TDM

Winning the Battle Does Not Mean Winning the War: Challenges Facing the Yukos Shareholders in Enforcing Their Arbitration Awards Against the Russian Federation in England and Wales
by M. Davies
on OGEL and on TDM

Yukos v. Russian Federation: Observations on the Tribunal's Ruling on Damages
by by B. Sabahi and D. Ziyaeva
on OGEL and on TDM