Summary

Reproduced from www.worldbank.org/icsid with permission of ICSID. (Document, does not apply to summary and/or TDM IACL Case Report below).

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Case Report (free download)

Case Report by Alexandros-Cătălin Bakos, Editor Ignacio Torterola

Summary

Claimants brought an action for relief against Nigeria, based on the Nigerian domestic investment statute. They alleged several violations of its provisions, with the most important one being the prohibition against illegal expropriation. At the same time, the Claimants also relied on customary international law (minimum standard of treatment, fair and equitable treatment, and full protection and security) to substantiate their claims for the same set of facts. The dispute was mainly based on the alleged inactions of State organs (and a State-owned private entity) as concerns a private corporate governance dispute between the two Claimants and one of the directors on the Board of a company owned by the former. The Tribunal dismissed the claims in their entirety because the State-owned enterprise's behavior was not attributable to Nigeria, while the acts of State organs did not reach the threshold necessary for finding a violation of the expropriation standard or of several applicable customary rules.

Main issues

Attribution of the conduct of a State-controlled private entity to the Respondent; threshold necessary to reach a finding of indirect expropriation when the State does not get involved in affairs between the investor(s) and another private party; relevance of customary international law when the applicable law on the merits is domestic law.

Interocean Oil Development Company and Interocean Oil Exploration Company v Nigeria - ICSID Case No. ARB/13/20 - Award of the Tribunal - 6 October 2020

Case report provided by International Arbitration Case Law (IACL)

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